


The Opening Of The Outer Gate

by TheAddict4Dramatics



Category: The X-Files
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Historical, Angst, Cheese, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Historical Romance, Imagine Scully as a red cross war nurse, POV Dana Scully, Time Travel, War, World War I, iconic, so much cheese, war romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-25
Updated: 2020-12-03
Packaged: 2021-03-09 05:02:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 27,714
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27198209
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheAddict4Dramatics/pseuds/TheAddict4Dramatics
Summary: She was only just processing that the fact that he was here in nineteen-fourteen in an Officer’s uniform meant he was a solider, a trench-warfare fighting World War One solider. He was just the same as all of the other ill-fated men that she looked after every day. He was in just as much danger. Fresh tears pooled in her eyes. How could she have ever wished for him to be here with her? It seemed so unimaginably cruel now it had happened...“I thought I was going mad. I… I was starting to wonder which world was real.” She confessed shakily. His eyes crumpled in understanding.“I know. It’s mad and impossible. Tell me you’ve got a perfectly logical and scientific explanation for this because I am dying to hear it!” He joked lightly. A smile was plastered over his face, in comparison to her melancholy he seemed nothing but joyous at their reunion.Following on from the cheesy-as-heck medical romance I give you the cheesy-as-heck historical romance.
Relationships: Fox Mulder/Dana Scully
Comments: 25
Kudos: 97





	1. Chapter 1

_I shall not cry Return! Return!  
— Nor weep my years away;  
But just as long as sunsets burn,  
— And dawns make no delay,  
I shall be lonesome — I shall miss  
Your hand, your voice, your smile, your kiss.  
  
Not often shall I speak your name,  
— For what would strangers care  
That once a sudden tempest came  
— And swept my gardens bare,  
And then you passed, and in your place  
Stood Silence with her lifted face.  
  
Not always shall this parting be,  
— For though I travel slow,  
I, too, may claim eternity  
— And find the way you go;  
And so I do my task and wait  
The opening of the outer gate._

  * Ellen M. Huntington Gates (1835-1920)



It was a bitterly cold evening. Scully pulled her short cape closer around her, though the material remained unyielding in its stiff formality, and quickened her pace. She had thought she was used to cold weather after living so many years on the East Coast but a D.C. winter was nothing compared to the winters of rural France, so she had learnt. The camp was quiet as it always was at this time of night and she made her way quickly through it, her boots echoing on the wooden boards pressed into the mud. She was headed for the mess tent more than ready for her dinner, in fact she was starving hungry. She had never worked so physically hard in her life. Every calorie was needed and savoured. 

“Evening Nurse Simmons.” Scully said as the young nurse passed her, headed in the opposite direction.

“Good evening Sister.” Scully looked down at the fresh bandages in the nurses arms and frowned.

“Are you not finished for the night?”

“Almost Sister. I’ve got one patient left – an Officer that needs stitching up and a fresh dressing applied. It shouldn’t take me long.” Nurse Simmons explained quickly, clearly in a hurry to be finished with her work. Scully couldn’t blame her, the day had felt endless.

“An Officer?” Scully asked, though she tried not to make it sound as if she were scolding her.

“Yes Sister. I tried to see to him earlier but he insisted I looked after all of the men first.”

“How noble.”

“Yes.” Scully saw the little smile that spread across her mouth. Ah – so she wasn’t hurrying to get her work finished, on the contrary Scully was sure Nurse Simmons was going to take her time finishing it. Scully held out her hands.

“Give them to me, I’ll see to him. You go to the mess hall for your supper.” Nurse Simmons’ face fell. Instinctively she held onto the bandages a little tighter. 

“It’s alright Sister, I don’t mind. Really I don’t.”

“I know you don’t.” Scully answered knowingly. Even in the dim light she could see the other woman’s cheeks colour slightly.

“I only want to speak to him, I promise. He’s so terribly interesting and funny.” She was no longer meeting her superior’s eye. Scully sighed. She was too tired and too hungry for this argument.

“It’s not your intentions I have concerns about Nurse Simmons.”

“He’s not like that!” Nurse Simmons’ defended hotly.

“No man is ever like that until suddenly they are.”

Scully was aware of how bitter she sounded. And that’s what Nurse Simmons must have thought – Scully was a single woman in her mid-thirties, which in nineteen-fourteen well and truly made her a spinster. A bitter and jealous spinster that was determined no one would have any more fun than she was having, that was that no one would have any fun at all. And as sexist as that view point was Scully had to concede maybe they had a point – she was bitter. She’d been here too long. It had only been a few months but it felt as if it had been years. With every morning that passed with her waking up in this place it seemed less and less likely that she would ever get home. Mulder would have had some wild theory as to what was going on, what it all meant. Perhaps he would say that they had somehow switched places; that there was a nineteen-fourteen war nurse Scully wondering around in the new millennium in D.C. God, she hoped the alternative Scully was having a better time than she was. But Mulder wasn’t here, she hadn’t seen him in months, she may never see him again. Her gut clenched at the thought.

“Please Sister,” Nurse Simmons said suddenly bringing her back to the moment. “I’m not a rookie anymore, I know how to handle myself. If there is any sign of anything untoward I’ll leave at once.” Scully considered this for a moment.

“I suppose that’s true. You must have had your fair share of advances by now, unwanted or otherwise.” The nurse had perked up considerably at Scully’s words. She really hoped this wasn’t a mistake. “Stitch him up and change the dressing. That’s all. Then you leave.”

“Yes Sister, of course. Thank you!” Nurse Simmons’ rushed passed her.

“And Sophie…” Sophie turned back around, clearly taken aback at the use of her first name. “Whatever you do don’t fall in love with him. Out here there’s only one way that can end.”

Sophie nodded dutifully, but Scully doubted any of her warning would go in. With one last look at the young nurse hurrying off, she turned and headed for the mess tent.

***

Scully had just sat down with her food when Sophie entered the tent. The queue to be served for supper had been quite long but still Sophie had returned much quicker than Scully had expected her to. She didn’t know if that was a good thing or not. Scully dipped her spoon into the broth and brought the steaming food up to her mouth. It was mere millimetres away when she was interrupted: “Sister.” Sophie had approached her table without her realising. Scully placed the spoon back down onto her bowl. _So_ close.

“Is everything alright Nurse Simmons?” Though it clearly wasn’t – Sophie looked nervous and was anxiously playing with her hand in front of her. Scully knew she shouldn’t have left her to attend to the Officer.

“The Officer Sister, he’s asking to see you.”

“Me? Why?”

“I don’t know… We were talking and he complimented my stitches – said they were really neat and straight and asked how I’d got so good at it. I told him that I’d learnt from the best and he asked who the best was so I told him that too.” Scully frowned, unable to work out where this was going. “Well I said you’d taught me Sister.” She smiled, Sophie really was very sweet. And proving herself to be a damn good nurse too.

“So he wants to see me to praise your work and care?”

“No Sister I don’t think so. He jumped up when I said your name and almost begged me to come and find you. I think he must know you somehow. I’m sorry I don’t know his name.”

That couldn’t be true of course. Scully didn’t know a single person here – everyone that she knew hadn’t even been born yet. She had considered, more than once, trying to contact ancestors of hers – grandparents or great grandparents, but they were in America and she was in France. She wouldn’t even know where to begin.

“He’s still in the dressing station. Shall I tell him to go back to the Officer’s tent?”

“No, I’ll go and see him now, find out what is so pressing that it cannot wait.” Scully said as she rose out of her seat. She gestured to her meal: “Have this whilst it’s still hot.”

“Thank you Sister.” Sophie looked immeasurably relieved as she took Scully’s seat. She must have been disappointed that her conversation with the Officer didn’t end as she’d wanted but she’d avoided a telling-off which clearly eased the blow considerably. Scully smiled as she left the tent. Had she really ever been that young?

She made her way to the dressings tent on the other side of camp. As she arrived she paused for a moment outside and took a deep breath. Somehow she knew that whatever encounter she was about to have was one she did not want. The Officer was probably someone she had treated since she’d been here and whilst it may have ordinarily been nice to have seen the same face again, especially alive and relatively unharmed, she was simply not in the mood. Scully steeled herself and entered the tent. The Officer was standing with his back to her as he finished dressing.

“Okay sir, you’ve dragged me from my dinner you better have something urgent to tell me.”

The Officer turned towards her and at once all of the oxygen left her body. For several moments the two of them stood, shocked still and staring at each other. Scully felt herself take a step backwards as if retreating from the sight in front of her. Her mouth was agape and her hands were shaking. This could not be. She could not be seeing what she thought she was seeing and with each blink of her eye she expected him to be gone. But he remained.

“Scully… Scully, do you… do you know who I am?” He asked slowly. He wasn’t blinking as if he physically couldn’t take his eyes off of her. He wasn’t looking anywhere but right at her face, right into her eyes, right into her very soul. She was moving before she even realised it.

“Mulder!”

She ran to him and threw her arms around his neck, stretching far onto her tiptoes to get as close to him as possible. Her movements were so forceful he had to take a step back to steady himself but his response was instant – she felt his arms encircle her back and pull her closer to him. There was a sudden wetness against her face and she knew she must have been crying. He felt it too and then he was holding her even closer still until they were pressed together from head to toe, completely indistinguishable from one and another. She had not ever been so utterly _elated_ to see someone in her entire life. The relief rushed through her like a flood: _He was here. He was here_.

“You’re here.” She whispered against him, finally voicing what had been swirling in her head all that time. “How can you be here?”

“How can either of us be here?” He replied and he sounded just as shaky as she had.

He pulled back slightly to look at her and stroked his hand down her face, smiling at her and shrugging his shoulders at the lunacy of their situation. Scully withdrew her arms from his neck and started running her hands all over his face and head clearly checking for any injuries. Doctor Scully mode had been activated. He closed his eyes at the feel of her, at the familiarity of it, and hummed a little in contentment. But she couldn’t appreciate his reaction – she was only just processing that the fact that he was here in nineteen-fourteen in an Officer’s uniform meant he was a solider, a trench-warfare fighting World War One solider. He was just the same as all of the other ill-fated men that she looked after every day. He was in just as much danger. Fresh tears pooled in her eyes. How could she have ever wished for him to be here with her? It seemed so unimaginably cruel now it had happened.

“Are you okay? Are you injured?”

“I’m okay. Your little protégée fixed me up pretty good.” He drew her closer to him again, frowning in worry at how upset she was. She couldn’t stop crying – all of the fear and confusion and loneliness of the last few months seemed to be overwhelming her now.

“I thought I was going mad. I… I was starting to wonder which world was real.” She confessed shakily. His eyes crumpled in understanding.

“I know. It’s mad and impossible. Tell me you’ve got a perfectly logical and scientific explanation for this because I am dying to hear it!” He joked lightly. A smile was plastered over his face, in comparison to her melancholy he seemed nothing but joyous at their reunion.

“I don’t know what to tell you. It’s been so long…”

“Five months?”

“Yeah.”

“And you just woke up here one morning? In this world, in this life, with no explanation?” She nodded. “Me too.” He breathed the sigh of relief of a man who had finally gotten confirmation that he was not totally insane. She knew exactly how he felt. “God I am so glad to see you. I’ve missed you so much.” Mulder said earnestly and he leant his forehead against hers.

“I’ve missed you too.” Scully breathed against him. “I was starting to think I would never see you again.”

They were suddenly interrupted by a nurse entering the tent.

“I’m sorry to disturb you Sister.” The nurse said as Scully and Mulder jumped apart at the sound of her voice. Scully saw the surprise register on the young nurses’ face and inwardly cringed. The girl was fairly new and she didn’t know her well but it was a fair assumption that news of what she’d just witnessed would spread like wildfire. “Something has happened on one of the wards and Doctor Pelham is asking for you.”

“Tell him I’ll be right there.” Scully said. The nurse nodded and left and only then did Scully turn back toward Mulder. “There’s a woodland on the north side of the camp, do you know it?”

“Vaguely.”

“There’s a narrow dirt track that goes through it, follow that for about a quarter of a mile until you come to a small clearing. I’ll meet you there as soon as I can.”

“Okay.” She went to leave but he caught her arm. He leant down and kissed her gently on the forehead. She turned her face up to look at him and to her complete surprise he lowered his lips to hers. It was a barely there kiss, as platonic as the one they had shared on New Year’s Eve earlier that year or, technically, eighty-six years in the future. Mulder smiled at her and said:

“Just in case one of us vanishes to another time zone before I get to see you again.” 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sooo... some of this is pretty ooc but in fairness they have just been dropped into the middle of a horrendous war so you know... sometimes you've just got to tell the person you're desperately in love with that you're desperately in love with them!

“Oh my god Mulder.” Scully said in awe. It had taken her the past two days to fully accept that he was actually here and now this. 

She didn’t look up from the letter that she was clutching in her hands and devouring word by word. She hadn’t even considered that they would not be alone here; that other versions of people they knew could be here too but this letter from Samantha proved otherwise. Samantha was alive and well it seemed, living with her parents in America, though clearly with no memory of a different life. Did that mean that other people were here too or at least versions of them? Or did Samantha only exist in this world because she had ceased to exist in the real one? And if so was that true of others too – were Ahab and Missy waiting for her somewhere?

“I know.” Mulder said quietly as he sat on the log next to her. Finding time to see each other over the last couple of days had been tricky, she was always so busy and Mulder and his men would be moving out in a day or so. She had managed to sneak away that afternoon and they’d met in the woodland clearing.

“Can you get to her? Can you get leave?”

“No one is going to give me leave long enough to get there and back. And if I go anyway I’m a deserter.”

“Could she not come somewhere closer? England perhaps?” Scully couldn’t even express what she was feeling at the thought of him seeing his sister again. God only knew what he must be feeling but he was remarkably calm, morose even.

“I’m not going to ask her to come all this way, not with everything that is going on…” He paused and Scully, assuming he had finished, began to reread the letter. “Which brings me to my next point…” Scully looked up, not liking the edge to his voice. As soon as she saw his face she understood what he was about to say.

“Oh you’ve got to be kidding me.” At once she was filled with an indignant anger. How dare he. Had some bullshit nineteen-tens chivalry suddenly worn off on him? Scully stood with the force of her feelings.

“Hear me out Scully, it’s so dangerous here…”

“Really? Is it? I had no idea. I’ve just been braiding hair and painting nails since I arrived.” Sharp sarcasm dripped from every word but Mulder would not be put off. He stood and walked over to her, holding her lightly by the arm, his face the picture of imploring concern.

“Listen to me, you could go back home and find her for me, find Samantha for me. And maybe find your own family too… Melissa might be…” Scully shook free of his hold before he could finish. Samantha’s letter had become crumpled between them but neither of them noticed.

“How dare you.” She turned to leave but he grabbed her arm again, with more force this time.

“Scully, please… I need you to be safe, I need you to be okay.” He sounded so desperate and god-damn-it there were tears in her eyes again – a potent mix of outrage, fury and fear.

“Well I’m a lot safer than you are.”

“And you’d be a lot safer still out of Europe.” Nothing short of anguish shone on his face. It softened her anger slightly but she hated him for it. For being so fucking earnest.

“Mulder I don’t understand a single thing about how we are here but what I do know is that I can help these people.” She was the one that was imploring now, silently begging him to see sense. Mulder sighed and looked down.

“Not if you’re dead.” He muttered, eyes fixed upon the floor.

“Who knows if we can even die here? Last time you had a little time travel world war adventure, you jumped off of a ship in the middle of the ocean and woke up at home. Maybe that’s what would happen to us here.”

“And maybe it won’t. I don’t know what the Queen Anne was but it wasn’t this. It lasted a few hours – this has been five months. This is real.”

“Well you were pretty convinced the Queen Anne was real too.”

“It was but not in the same way.” He raked a hand through his hair, clearly frustrated. She didn’t want to upset him and she didn’t want to fight but there was no way in hell she was backing down from this. This was, in no way, his decision to make.

“I’m not going home Mulder.” She told him firmly. “And don’t act like you’re the only one that is going to be sick with worry knowing the other one of us is out there. Don’t act like I don’t understand what you’re feeling.” He shook his head and finally released her arm, taking a step back from her.

“And you don’t act like you feel the same way about me as I do about you.”

Scully was stunned.

“What does that mean?”

“It means in the real world, in _our_ world you are the only person I have left in my life. It means I’m in love with you and you know it. I’ve told you.”

She thought back to his half drugged confession. It had been so easy to rebuff then, to write off but she knew it wasn’t completely untrue. And that had terrified her. She wasn’t ready then, they weren’t ready, they were barely talking for some parts of that year. Things had gotten better between them though and before she had wound up here she’d really thought they were on the cusp of something more. Did he really believe that to be true? That she didn’t feel the same way back. She wasn’t sure it was actually possible for somebody to be that unaware, and a famous profiler no less. Exactly what part of her psychological profile did not scream out stupidly in love with my crazy-ass partner? She didn’t know whether to laugh or sob and in the end the noise that escaped her was somewhere between the two.

“If you think that I’m not in love with you then you really are an idiot.” She said, refusing to let the tears fall. And with that she left.

***

Scully sunk down onto the lumpy mattress feeling nothing short of exhausted. She’d officially had the longest day in the world and every part of her body was singing out to her in fatigue. She laid back against her pillow, still fully dressed and considered just falling asleep then and there. As she turned her head to the table next to her bed she saw the unopened letter Nurse Simmons had given to her earlier. She knew who it was from of course, a little time travel wasn’t enough to change a person’s handwriting so it would seem. He had left this morning. He hadn’t said goodbye and she had no idea when she would see him next.

Only they could be this confused about the state of their relationship after _finally_ confessing their feelings for one and another. And of course it had happened in the middle of an argument. Even in nineteen-fourteen they were still just as dysfunctional as ever. Scully sighed and then before she had the chance to talk herself out of it she reached for the letter and opened it.

_Dear Scully,_

_I don’t really know how to start… letter writing is certainly an art form we have lost in the modern world. I haven’t written a love letter since I was a teenager – a pathetic, lovesick one at that. But this is a love letter Scully, at least I hope it is. No matter what is happening in the world, no matter what we say to one another, not matter if it’s nineteen-fourteen or two-thousand, I love you. And I know that’s huge and scary and overwhelming but it’s true. I don’t want to hide from it anymore. I’ve spent five months praying to a God I don’t believe in that I would get to see you again. And yes I was aiming for seeing you in the present day, and yes I hate that you’re here in the middle of so much turmoil, but I will take anything I can get. I will take any part or incarnation of you that I can get._

_The truth is whether in this world or in our future lives you are the only thing that really matters to me. The fact that Samantha is alive here is amazing and maybe I’ll get to see her one day. And if the X-files are still waiting for us if we ever get home then I guess that’s great too. But neither of those things are as important to me as you. I’ve grieved for my sister. It took me twenty-seven years but I finally did and with it my never-ending quest for the truth has come to a natural end. The truth, my truth, is that you are my future, wherever or whenever that future may be._

_So – you and me, we’re going to wait this war out and see what happens. You’re going to be brilliant (and careful!) and inspiring and amazing and you’re going to help these people. And I’m going to keep myself alive long enough so that next time I see you I can kiss you so hard it’ll make us both lightheaded. And then I’m never going to stop; kissing you and loving you and being with you._

_I love you Scully._

_M xxx_

The page was littered with tears by the time she had finished reading.

***

Scully rushed down the road, walking as fast as she could without breaking into a run. As she went she absentmindedly kept bringing her hands to her hair to check it was staying in place. She had spent time on it – in nineteen-fourteen the ways in which women could amplify their appearance were limited, even more so when those women were in a military hospital in the middle of nowhere, but she’d wanted to look good. She was also really late. She picked up her pace again.

Scully was vaguely aware of the car approaching from behind her, they really were in the middle of nowhere and vehicles of any sort were unusual. She only turned to look when the car slowed up alongside her. Doctor Pelham was inside, smiling widely at her.

“Sister Scully you look in an awful rush – can I give you a lift into the village?” He all but drawled at her in his proper English accent as his gaze lingered on her styled hair.

In theory she really shouldn’t have liked Doctor Pelham – he had a confidence that bordered on arrogance and he was a known womanizer. But she found she really didn’t mind him all that much; he knew he wouldn’t get anywhere with her in that regard and he had been one of the doctors least put out by her extensive medical knowledge. She did have almost ninety years of medical and scientific advancement on them but of course they didn’t know that. Most of the doctors were irritated, outraged even at her level of input. She well and truly did not know her place. But Doctor Pelham always listened to her medical opinions, he even sought them out from time to time. Scully needed any ally she could get and as long as he remembered to keep his hands to himself they’d be fine.

Scully looked at her watch; she really could do with the ride. She’d been waiting months for today and now that it was actually here she wasn’t sure she was physically capable of waiting any longer. 

“Sure, thanks Frank.” Scully said. She got into the car and he pulled away, cruising down the abandoned road into the nearby village.

“You look very nice Sister Scully.” Frank flirted. “Where abouts am I taking you?”

“Wherever you’re going in the village is fine – I’ll walk from there.” The village was a small place and where she was going was none of his business. He didn’t need to know that she was going to a shady guesthouse notorious for not minding if its occupants were married or not.

“Woman of mystery. You keep your secrets. I’m going to the Mariette Inn.” _Shit_.

“That will do fine.” She replied, trying her best to keep her voice calm and her face neutral. He must have seen the flicker in her eyes however as the next moment he was chuckling to himself and letting out a low whistle.

“Oh I’m sure it will Sister Scully! I wouldn’t have had you pegged for the sort.”

“And what sort is that?” Scully answered defensively. “Out of the two of us I’m not the one with the wedding band on.” She felt a small amount of satisfaction when she saw him eye his own hand on the steering wheel. A look akin to guilt flashed across his face but it was gone in an instant.

“It’s different for me.” For the first time in the conversation his tone held no jest.

“How so?”

“I’m a man – an important one.” Scully snorted.

“If you do say so yourself.”

“You know what I mean Dana. I’m only looking out for you. If certain people at the hospital found out they’d kick you out.”

“And if I marry him they’ll kick me out then too, so really what choice do I have?” The bone-deep bitterness was back in her voice. This nineteen-tens misogynistic bullshit was really starting to piss her off.

“Marry? My, my Sister Scully. Should I be picking out a hat?” Apparently they’d reached his limit for being serious. Scully smirked, the tension dispersing at once. He was right she did need to be careful.

The rest of the quick journey was spent in comfortable silence and as they arrived at the inn Frank pulled into a space at the front of it.

“Thank you for the ride Frank.” She said genuinely.

“Any time.” She started to get out of the car. “And Dana… I hope he deserves you. If not he’ll have me to deal with.” Scully rolled her eyes but she couldn’t help but smile. His growing fondness of her was rather sweet – even if he was an idiot.

“Whatever you say Frank.”

***

Scully was abuzz with nervous energy as she walked down the hallway of the inn. All the time they had waited for this, all of the letters she’d written and received so full of love and longing in that time, it had all been leading up to now. It’s Mulder. It’s just Mulder, she told the uncontrollable butterflies in her stomach. It felt like such a big moment. So much significance.

She took a big breath and knocked on the door. He opened it almost at once. He was still in his uniform though he looked slightly dishevelled – his jacket was gone, shirt untucked with half the buttons open, his feet bare. He looked okay; tired and thin, but okay. She let out a breath she felt she’d been holding onto since the last time she saw him.

“Hi.” He greeted her, swallowing nervously. The fact that he appeared just as nervous as she was calmed her somewhat. It made her feel bolder.

“Hi.”

She entered the room and he shut the door behind him. The moment it closed she launched herself at him. He held her close, one hand hugged around her entire waist and the other anchored into her hair, undoing all of the work she’d put into it. She didn’t care. She didn’t care one bit. They held each other as tight as they possibly could and at last she felt like she could breathe again. He was safe.

“Are you okay?” He asked her softly after a few moments.

“Yeah I’m okay. Are you?” She pulled back a little so they could look at each other. “Are you injured?” She ran her hand briefly through his hair to check for head injuries. Just like the last time he closed his eyes against the feel of it.

“No, I’m good.”

She accepted his statement with a nod of her head and then stood on her tiptoes to bring their foreheads together. She tried her best to even out her breathing and collect herself. She didn’t want what came next to be frantic.

“Mulder… I think it’s time for you to kiss me like you promised.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

“Because I meant what I said… once I start I don’t think I’m going to be able to stop.” She smiled at him.

“Sounds pretty good to me.”

He wasted no time in leaning down and kissing her. It was the perfect kiss, full of promise. He kept to his word and once he had started he just kept kissing her and kissing her until she was forced to draw back or be at risk of suffocation. She was panting hard against him desperate to have his mouth on her again. As if reading her mind he started to kiss his way down her jaw and the side of her neck finding, on instinct alone, just the right place to pause and suck on her skin. Scully moaned, angling her neck to give him better access. She realised that it was always going to be like this – natural and instinctive and like nothing else she had ever experienced before. Every one of his actions produced a potent reaction from her in turn until her whole body hummed with the electricity between them.

“I love you.” She breathlessly exclaimed. Mulder looked up at her and caught her eye, he nodded in acceptance of her confession.

“I love you too.” He kissed her firmly on the lips. “I’ve wanted this for so long.”

“Me too. No more waiting.”

“No more waiting.” He agreed and led her into the bedroom. 


	3. Chapter 3

They were lying in bed together, the sheets pooled at their waists and a light breeze drifting through the open window. Scully was using Mulder’s upper body as a pillow as his hand played with her hair and shoulder and occasionally her ear which made her shiver and press herself even further into him. A comfortable and satisfied silence surrounded them.

Scully stroked one of the many marks on his chest and torso caused by her overexcited mouth. She placed another kiss to his pec before saying:

“You look like you’ve been attacked by a blood sucking monster… the chubacabra or a succubus maybe…”

“Who says I haven’t?”

She dug her fingers into his sides, tickling him as he guided her hips until she was lying flat on top him, pressed into him in all the right places. She kissed him slowly and deeply a couple of times, utterly lost in the feeling of the moment.

“I want to stay in this bed forever.” She whispered into the stubble on his jaw before placing some butterfly kisses there too.

“No food?” Mulder teased.

“Nuh uh.” She said between kisses.

“No sleep?”

“No.” More kisses.

“You just want to use me for my body for the rest of eternity.” She paused as if she was really thinking about it.

“Pretty much.” She decided in the end.

“Sounds good to me. I’m in.” They shared a smile. If only the world outside of this bed did not exist.

“Have you heard from Sam recently?” Scully asked after a few moments of lazy, quiet exploration of one and another.

“Uh yeah. I got a letter from her last week.” He looked up into her eyes and at once she knew something was off.

“What is it?”

“She… I was going to write to you about it but I couldn’t find the right words to put it into a letter. Maybe I should just show you.” He untangled himself from her and went to his pack on the floor next to the bed. She couldn’t help but admire the view as he did. He came back holding the folded letter and climbed back into bed. “That doesn’t change anything okay. I want you to know that.”

She was slightly worried but she nodded and took the letter from him. She skimmed over it, reading the usual things she would expect to find – questions about how he was, where he was, what was happening as well as news from home. And then she reached the last paragraph:

_Diana came to see me yesterday afternoon. She was most upset; she said you had not written to her in months. I didn’t know what to say. You were certainly quite besotted with her when you left for Europe but you have not mentioned her in your letters to me in so long. And then there is this nurse, Scully, that you keep writing about. If your feelings have changed I really think you should write to Diana and tell her, to stop her from waiting for you to come home. You know how I feel about her Fox so I won’t pretend she is my best friend all of a sudden but I do think you should tell her the truth. And now I have had my say I shall not mention the matter any further. Your business is your own – though I prefer it when it doesn’t show up at my doorstep!_

“Diana.” Scully said as she finished reading, her voice flat.

“Yeah. They’re all coming out the woodwork now.”

“Obviously you had some sort of relationship with her before you came here.”

“Not me. I arrived here in nineteen-fourteen already in Europe. Whatever the previous Mulder of this body did before that is as much your guess as it is mine.”

“So you don’t know the level of commitment between the two of you… you could be engaged…” She was aware of how sad she sounded but she was feeling too raw to control it. Mulder took her hand that was still clutching the letter.

“I very much doubt that. I’ve been here over a year and I haven’t written a single letter to her or received one. And this is the first time Sam has mentioned her too.”

“What are you going to do?”

“I don’t know. Write to Diana calling whatever it was between us off and send it to Sam asking her to pass it on. I don’t think there is much else I can do.”

“You’re sure that’s what you want?”

“What do you mean?”

“You don’t have to do that out of some sense of loyalty to me.”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“I just mean I know you and Diana have a complicated history and that you were once involved and back in our world she’s dead after helping you and you must be feeling…” She was getting more and more upset as she thought about what this meant. Mulder leant forward to interrupt her, taking her face in his hands.

“Listen to me, I’m not feeling anything okay. Nothing towards or about Diana. Yes she died in our world after helping me but she signed her own death sentence when she pledged her allegiance to that chain smoking bastard. And this Diana… I don’t know her and I don’t have any desire to. Besides which Sam doesn’t seem to think too highly of her which tells me Diana isn’t that different to how she’s always been.”

“She was your friend.” Scully repeated the same phrase she’d used after Diana had died.

“No, she wasn’t. It just took me way too long to see that. This means nothing.” He told her firmly. Eventually she felt herself nod and then he was kissing her. It became more and more passionate until she dropped the letter to grasp at his hair as he ravished her neck with his mouth. “Now let’s get back to never leaving this bed.” She squealed as he suddenly flipped her over onto her back, all thoughts of Diana long gone.

***

Scully started awake suddenly, feeling panicked but without knowing why. After a moment of disorientation she realised there was an insistent banging on the hotel door. She had been in this world long enough to be more than used to wake up calls like this and they never meant anything good.

“Stay here.” Mulder said as he rose from the bed and pulled on his trousers and undershirt. He left the bedroom part of their suite and closed the door behind him, concealing Scully to whoever was still pounding on the door. She heard Mulder open it and then the muffled conversation that followed.

“Can I help you?” Mulder asked.

“I was looking for Sister Scully… I was informed she was staying in this room.” Frank replied, sounding his usual just a little too pleased with himself self.

“Who are you?” Mulder demanded. Scully knew he was deliberately revealing nothing. Neither of them were naïve, they knew exactly what would happen if the wrong person discovered Scully in this room with him.

“Frank?” Scully said as she opened the bedroom door. She had pulled on a robe and was surprised to see Frank had the decency to advert his gaze a little. It was a level of respect that she had not expected.

“I’m sorry to disturb you Dana. They’ve just sent for me at the hospital, well for both of us, but I told them I had dropped you in the main square.”

“Thank you for that.” She said genuinely. “What’s happened?”

“I don’t really know. The porter they send was pretty fraught and then a little put off by the company I was keeping… anyway, a lot men have just come in. It sounds… bad. It sounds really bad Dana.”

She was torn. Of course she wanted to go and help but she had waited months to see Mulder and god only knew when she would see him again. Mulder stepped forward and put a hand on her shoulder.

“You should go. They need you.” He told her simply. And he was right, goddamn it. She sighed heavily.

“Okay. I’ll just go and change.”

She left the two of them standing there as Mulder gestured for Frank to come in and closed the door behind him. As she changed as quickly as she could she heard what she imagined to be a rather awkward silence from the other room before Frank finally said:

“Doctor Frank Pelham.”

“Fox Mulder.” She imagined them shaking hands in stiff formality.

“Mulder? Of the 7th Essex Regiment?”

“Yes.”

“Your reputation proceeds you.” Scully heard Mulder’s sound of confusion that followed. “I’ve got a couple of friends in the 7th Essexes. They say you’re one crazy brave bastard.”

“Or just plain crazy.” Mulder joked and Frank laughed. The pair seemed to have found a common ground. “Scully, she writes fondly of you in her letters. She says you’re a very capable Doctor, and as I’m sure you know praise is not easily won from Scully.”

“She flatters me. She is far more capable than I am.”

“Don’t beat yourself up about that, Scully is more capable that just about everyone.” Mulder said with more than a little pride.

“That’s true.” Scully could hear the smile in Frank’s voice and found she was oddly moved by it. By both of them – these good men that had her back. “You knew her… before all of this.”

“Yes. We were close but not… Say you want about war but it does do a good job of showing you where your priorities lie.” Frank hummed in agreement.

“Well you’re a better man than I am. I don’t think I could let my wife do what Dana does. All those men and all those guns.”

“You’ve worked with Scully long?”

“About a year.”

“She strike you as the kind of woman you ‘let’ do anything?”

“Yeah you got me there.”

The two shared a laugh as Scully finally finished changing and went back into the other room, buttoning her coat as she approached Mulder. Frank withdrew to the doorway to give them what little privacy he could, though he did not leave the room altogether.

“How long will you be here?” She asked Mulder.

“Till the day after tomorrow. We’re leaving first light.”

Scully closed her eyes against the disappointment. A little over thirty six hours. It was doubtful that she would make it back before he had to leave, especially if the situation at the hospital was as dire as it sounded. The look on Mulder’s face said he knew it too.

“Rest. Try and get some sleep. And eat, lots.” She instructed him seriously.

“Aye aye Doc.” He gently teased.

“I’ll try as hard as I can to get back before you go.”

“I know. Be careful.” He said and then he kissed her firmly but mindful of their company.

“I love you.” Scully whispered.

“I love you. Be safe.” Mulder repeated as if she was the one that was going back to the frontline. She supposed she was, in a way.

She took one last lingering look at him as she followed Frank from the room.

***

It was the second time in forty eight hours that Scully was practically running down this hotel corridor. It had just gone four am and the entire place was silent, all its inhabitants asleep. She knocked quietly on the door, mindful of drawing attention to herself by waking anyone other than Mulder. She had managed to sneak past the night clerk that had been dozing at the front desk, she didn’t want to be discovered now. After only a few moments she heard movement on the other side of the door. If Mulder had been asleep then her quite knock had been enough to wake him, he had always been such a light sleeper.

He opened the door completely bare chested with bed hair and a lopsided grin on his drowsy face. She had never loved him more.

“You made it.” He said with a sleep soaked voice. He looked at the watch that was still on his wrist. “And with four hours to spare.”

Suddenly she didn’t care that they were in an open corridor where anyone could see them – she threw herself into his arms and just like the day before he caught her and held her tightly, bringing her inside the room and closing the door. When they parted he stroked the hair out of her eyes and studied her face.

“Have you slept at all since I last saw you?”

“I caught a half hour or so a little while ago.” She saw the concern flit across his eyes. She knew she didn’t look great but she’d had to get back to see him.

“Come on, come to bed and let’s sleep.” He said as he led her towards to the bedroom.

“No, I don’t want to sleep. I’ll sleep when you’ve gone.” For a moment it looked like he was about to argue with her but didn’t. Instead he asked:

“Was it bad?”

“Yeah. It was bad.”

That was all she replied and it took all of her effort not to shudder as she said the words. She couldn’t do it. She couldn’t access the memories of the last thirty hours or she would completely break down. She’d spend the next four hours howling into the abyss. She might spend the rest of her life howling into the abyss. She couldn’t think about it, not yet.

Mulder pulled her into him and held her in a tight embrace, his lips resting on the top of her head.

“Okay so no sleep. How about we just lay down instead?”

Because his arms were the only thing keeping her upright she agreed and they moved towards the bed. He helped her to take off her uniform and her cursed corset until she was down to her underwear and then she crawled under the covers and snuggled up to him.

“Talk to me.” She requested to his chest.

“About what?”

“Anything, I don’t mind. Tell me a story about Bigfoot or something. Just talk to me. And hold me.”

She sounded so small at that moment and she hated it. She knew all Mulder wanted to do was protect her and she was amazed he was resisting asking her to go back to America again. Perhaps he was scared she would kill him if he did. After a few moments of silence he pulled her closer to him and started telling her a charming tale involving Baba Yaga and the souls of the dead.

***

Scully fell asleep about five minutes into the story and Mulder spent the rest of the night holding her and wishing things were different. By the time he woke her in the morning he was already dressed and packed up ready to go. She was angry at first that he’d let her fall asleep and hadn’t woken her until the last moment, but she didn’t have the energy to keep it up for long.

They said their goodbyes next to the closed door with gentle kisses and tender caresses.

“I don’t want you to go. I want you to stay here with me.” Scully whispered tearfully. She was so, so tired. She thought perhaps if they stayed like this, hushed and still, that maybe no one would know they were in here, no one would coming looking for them and they could be left alone.

“I know. Me too.” Mulder replied, just as gently.

“What if we never get back Mulder? What if this is our lives now?”

“Then we’ll do as I said… we’ll wait this war out and when it’s over we’ll travel home, together, and see what awaits for us there.”

“Yeah.” She agreed quietly.

“I’ve really got to go or they’ll send out a search party. Be safe.”

“You be safe.” Scully challenged.

“I’ll write as soon as we know our new posting. I love you.” Despite it all she smiled.

“I think you could say that a thousand times and it would still feel this good.”

“Well good. Because I love you.” She laughed and tried to bask in the feeling of it. They could do this. She had to believe they could do this.

“I love you too.”

And with that they parted. 


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Pre-warning: heavy. heavy angst in this one and some vague descriptions of gore.
> 
> Also I totally stole the scenario of the second half of this from the 2014 version of Testament of Youth. Which y'all should definitely watch or better yet read!
> 
> Any recognisable dialogue belongs to Chris Cater, thanks Chris babe!

Scully pulled the helmet lower over her face as she walked. She must be mad. There was no way this was going to work – she was amazed she had not been caught already. But she couldn’t _not_ try.

She had been working at a field station when one of the soldiers had mentioned the 7th Essex Regiment had set up camp a few miles up the road and were awaiting their next orders. She knew at once she had to try and see him. So, she had waited for her work to be done and then she had snuck out. She could have gone in her nurse’s uniform of course but it would have raised some eyebrows and it wouldn’t have looked good for him if any superior officers were around. That had led her to borrowing a uniform from some poor soul that no longer required it. He had been slight and short but the uniform still looked way too big for her. It was the best she could do.

The solider that she had been following emerged from the tent he had told her to wait outside of. He directed her inside and, thankfully, did not follow her in. Here went nothing.

Mulder was sitting on the only chair inside, a book open in his lap and a curious expression on his face. Scully couldn’t help the sigh of relief that escaped her – he was okay. Mulder’s curious look deepened. He leant forward in his chair.

“You have a message for me Private?” He asked.

Scully looked behind her to make sure they were alone and then took off her helmet. Mulder’s eyes widened in shock so fast it was comical.

“Scully!” Before she could even blink he was on her, embracing her in a tight hug. She clung onto his back in relief. She had waited months for this moment. “What are you doing here?”

“I was working at a dressing station a few miles back and one of the men said your regiment was here.”

“And you’re dressed like that because?”

“I thought it would be easier to explain than a random American nurse.” He smiled at her in a way she’d only just been becoming used to back in their world. A smile that showed how much he enjoyed her smart plans and her smart brain. “I’m not sure how I got away with it though. That soldier clearly didn’t believe a word I said…” Mulder leant down to kiss her suddenly but she pulled away quickly. “Mulder! Someone might come in.”

“They won’t.”

She gave him a warning look but of course he dipped his head and kissed her anyway. He pulled away after only a few moments, clearly worried about being caught too, despite his assurances to the contrary. He looked her over with a slow smile. She thought if it wasn’t for her stature and the oversized uniform she would be quite convincing.

“How have you..?” Mulder asked, gesturing vaguely at her very flat chest.

“I bound them.” He made a face that said ‘ouch’ and she laughed. “Yeah, it’s not the most comfortable.”

“Is it weird that this is kind of turning me on right now?” He smirked, still looking at her chest. She smacked his arm playfully.

“Yes.”

“It’s you. I can’t stop thinking about you.” He loomed over her like he was going to kiss her again. She smiled, despite herself. She should not have been encouraging him. If someone caught them it would end up being a lot harder to explain than if she was in her nurses’ uniform. “How did we wait seven years? Were we insane?” He asked her seriously.

“I think we may have been.”

“I’m so happy you’re here right now.”

He sounded so sincere and she had missed him so much that she just couldn’t help herself – she rose onto her tiptoes and kissed him again. He responded at once, kissing her back until she was breathless and had to pull away, gasping.

“I just wanted to see you, to see you that you were alright.” Scully panted against his lips. Out of nowhere she was suddenly feeling desperate and emotional. She wanted to hold him for the rest of the night, for the rest of forever.

“I’m alright – _now_. Are you?”

“Yeah.” Neither of them were of course but it was the best they could do for now.

They heard footsteps approaching and jumped apart at once. Scully put her helmet back on as Mulder stepped back, creating a respectable distance between them once again. A private entered the tent and saluted Mulder.

“Sir, Captain McKinnon is just arriving, he has news of our next posting.”

“Very well, thank you. I shall be out momentarily.” The private nodded and left at once.

“I need to go.” Scully said. Mulder looked morose but he nodded his agreement. “Look after yourself.” She told him firmly.

“You too.”

They shared a look full of meaning but they couldn’t risk another embrace. After a long moment Scully turned and left the tent, feeling simultaneously lighter and somehow still much heavier than before she had arrived. 

***

There were so many bodies. That was all she could think as she surveyed the scene around her. So many men laid out in beds, in stretches, on the floor. It looked like a warzone. Her mind thought of the tired cliché before she realised that was exactly what it was. Everywhere she looked there was a chaos of activity – medical personal darting in and out of all the human debris, stretcher bears running back and forth only adding to the growing masses. And the noise. So much noise it was overwhelming. A cacophony of tragedy: screaming, wailing and moaning all morphed into a terrible white sound. Somehow this situation, her life here, although she already been here for months and months, had never felt more real. If this was all a dream the word nightmare did not even begin to cover it.

An orderly ran past her and knocked into her harshly, shouting an apology without turning back. It was enough to snap her out of her daze. She sprang into action, calling instructions to some nearby nurses who were standing still, looking just as shell shocked. As she continued to work, she barely heard her name being called over the din of activity around her until suddenly the voice was right behind her.

“Sister Scully!”

She turned to see Frank coming to a halt beside her. He had a strange look of despair on his face that she had never seen before and lord knew they’d been in similar scrapes before. They’d seen similar destruction, too many times, but never quite on this level.

“What is it?” He swallowed nervously as if he couldn’t bring himself to say what he needed to. But they didn’t have time for that. “Frank, what is it?”

“Some of the men being brought in… they’re the 7th Essexes…”

Scully stumbled back as if the information had physically struck her.

_He can’t be here. He can’t be here. He can’t be here._ That was all she thought over and over again: _He cannot be here._

“Is he here?” Her voiced sounded surprisingly strong.

“I don’t know. I haven’t seen him.”

Scully’s head started whipping around, scanning all of the faces of the men that surrounded her. But everything was a blur and she couldn’t make out any their features through the thick blood and dirt that covered them. There was a roaring in her ears that would not go, a churning in her stomach, she felt light headed as if she were about to pass out.

She didn’t feel Frank’s hand on her arm until he shook her slightly, bringing her focus back to him.

“Dana, listen to me… some of the men, they didn’t make it, they died on the way here… the men say there were some officers amongst them.”

“No.” Her instant reaction was so strong she shook with it. She didn’t realise she had said the word out loud until she saw the look on Frank’s face. Despair had been right. She was drowning in it. “Where are they? The bodies?” The shake did sound in her voice now.

“They’re unloading them out the back.”

Scully set off at a run. She could faintly hear Frank calling after her but she didn’t stop.

Behind the main area of the camp a couple of orderlies were slowly unloading bodies from the back of a van. Body after body after body. She had to swallow down tears at the look on their faces – the resignation. They did not acknowledge her as went over to where the bodies were being laid out. They weren’t in straight lines, there wasn’t enough room for that, they were being piled – ready for a mass grave. Some of the lifeless faces were looking up at her and some were turned away so she dropped to her knees and started going over the bodies, turning over the ones she couldn’t see. They were all cold and stiff beneath her hands, stiff already. She had seen death in her time, of course she had, but this was something more than that. Something, somehow, more brutal and final than she had ever experienced before.

“Mulder…” Scully whispered as if she were expecting him to suddenly sit up and answer her. She turned over another body. It wasn’t him. But it was someone – someone’s son or brother or husband or father. “Sorry.” She murmured as she disturbed them, as if that would somehow make it better. “Sorry.” Another body. “Sorry.” And another. “Sorry.” They orderlies were looking at her strangely, as if she had lost her mind. Perhaps she had.

“Mulder!” She called again, louder this time. When she reached the end of the row of bodies she turned around on her hands and knees, mud crawling its way up her uniform. “Mulder… Mulder!” She was almost screaming by now. She knew she was hysterical but she felt strangely numb. Finding him there was the very last thing she wanted but somehow the more she couldn’t find him the worse it became. Tears splashed down onto her hands, she hadn’t realised she’d started crying.

And then she saw him.

His eyes were closed, his mouth hanging slightly open, his head tilted towards her. He looked as if he were sleeping. He looked like he had in that hotel room all those months ago. The one and only time she knew what it was like to lie with him in that way – as lovers. Her gut _ached_.

“No.” Her voice started small but she could feel it building up inside of her. “No… no… this is not happening.” She sat back onto her heels and stared up at the sky. “This is not happening!” She challenged God himself. “Nooooooo!”

When there was no air left in her lungs she crawled towards his body. A shaking hand came down to rest on his face as she anticipated the coldness that would greet her fingertips. Only it didn’t come. Instead she found warmth. It took her a couple of moments to realise…

Frantically she looked for a pulse. And there is was! Weak but present. Scully looked down to the wound on his side and saw it was still oozing blood subtly from under his uniform. Her hands went to it at once, applying pressure as she turned towards the orderlies.

“Help me! He’s not dead. Help me! Please!”

They rushed over with a stretcher and Mulder groaned as they manoeuvred him onto it. He didn’t open his eyes.

“It’s okay… you’re okay…” Scully was far too frantic to be calming. “I’ve got you Mulder, you’re okay. I’ve got you.”

They hoisted up the stretcher and rushed him inside, Scully running alongside them, her hands still glued to his bleeding side. She instructed the orderlies to move him onto the only unoccupied bed she could find. He made no sound this time and Scully tried not to process that. Frank was at her side in an instant. 

“He’s not dead. There’s a wound on his side, a bullet I think, it’s just missed his stomach, there’s a lot of blood loss, he needs surgery…” Scully reeled off without drawing breath. She was trying to focus herself by relaying her medical diagnosis. Mulder didn’t need a hysterical girlfriend, he needed a doctor. She could help. It was what she did, the whole reason she was here.

“Okay. Let’s prep him for surgery and get him straight down there.” Frank said.

Scully nodded and they both got to work.


	5. Chapter 5

Scully came too suddenly, awoken by movement in the previously still room. Her eyes immediately darted to Mulder but of course he was still completely out and he could be for hours, if not days to come. Frank was moving around him, checking his pupils and other vitals. He glanced back at Scully as she sat up straighter in the chair she’d been dozing in. Her back made a loud popping sound as she stretched it and she tried not to wince too much – Frank was already looking as if he were about to reprimand her.

“It’s time to check the wound.” He said instead.

“Okay, yeah.” She made a move to stand from the chair but Frank put a hand on her shoulder, stilling her movements.

“It’s okay, I’ve got it.” He started to unwind the bandages, talking quietly as he did: “He looks good. His colour has improved.”

“Yeah.”

“It looks okay.” Frank concluded after he had studied the wound for several moments. “He’s not totally out of the woods but he’s definitely getting there.” Scully simply nodded, too exhausted to do anything else. “You know if I thought for even a second that you’d listen to me, I’d tell you to go and get some sleep in your own bed.” Scully smiled slightly at him and brought her feet up onto the chair, placing her arms around her knees and resting her forehead there.

“I’m good here.” She was aware she looked far from good. “You know I once told Nurse Simmons not to fall in love out here, that it would only end in heartache if she did. I should have followed my own advice.” The tiredness in her voice was making her sound detached and cold. She found she didn’t mind that but something in Frank’s expression had changed. He sighed deeply.

“I think you were in love with him long before either of you were here in this hellhole. It’s not something you can control.” He walked over to her and lifted her chin gently with his fingers. “Chin up sweetheart.” He told her firmly. And with that he left. 

***

It was another three days before Mulder came to for the first time following his surgery. Scully was by his side, aware of his oncoming re-consciousness long before Mulder was. She stroked his hair softly and murmured encouragements to try and bring him round gently but of course as soon as he was aware of his own body he gasped in pain and groaned loudly.

“Shhh… it’s alright… you’re okay…” Scully cooed softly.

“Scu…lly” He rasped out, followed by a loud swallow. His voice was as weak as she’d been expecting.

“I’m here.” He opened his eyes slowly, blinking several times against the harsh daylight before turning his gaze to her. She offered him the brightest smile she could muster – she knew it was wobbly at best. “Hi.” She whispered as he tried and failed to smile back.

“What… year…”

“Still nineteen-sixteen I’m afraid.”

“So that’s… that’s why… my body feels like this?” He managed at last.

“Well that and you took a bullet to the gut.” He winced harshly at the sound of it and she regretted being so matter of fact about it. She leant her face close to his so it was resting on his pillow and started to stroke along his eyebrows and forehead in comfort.

“I’m sorry.” He told her sincerely.

“Why are you sorry?”

“How long have I been here?”

“A few days.” With a great effort he brought his hand to her face and tried to stroke her cheek. His fingers were clumsy with lack of use but she relished in the feeling of it. His warm skin against hers was evidence his heart was still beating, that he would live, despite everything that had happened.

“When was the last time you properly slept?” Mulder asked suddenly. She frowned at the question – it wasn’t what she was expecting to hear and honestly she wasn’t sure she could remember. The night before he had been brought in… how long ago was that? She hadn’t looked in a mirror since then either but she knew she must look terrible.

“I’m fine.”

“S’not what I asked…” He was slurring his words slightly which was too be expected but it made the stern tone he was trying to adopt rather unsuccessful.

“Mulder you just woke up, don’t worry about me – I’m okay.” She kissed him before he could argue any further, a soft caress just to shut him up. When she pulled away she continued to stroke his face and they were still for a few moments, looking at each other, touching each other, breathing each other in. “Let me get you some water.” She said at last as she detangled herself from him. She poured him a glass and held it to his lips. “That’s it, you know the drill… slowly. Good.” She encouraged as he managed to drink it down without coughing too much. Waking up from days unconscious was at least something he had rather a lot of previous experience in. 

“So, what’s the prognosis Doc?” He asked, sounding much better for the fluid.

“You’re okay.” By this point she didn’t know if she was telling him that or herself. She was the one that needed the convincing. “You’re going to be okay. It’s going to be a slow process though. You’re going to be in this bed for a while yet.”

“Hmm…” He sounded about as displeased at that as she’d expected. “You planning on climbing in and keeping me company then?” There was the slightest sparkle in his eye and she couldn’t help but smile.

“If you’re lucky.” Her voice faltered on the last word as she felt her body tremble. Lucky was exactly what he had been. He had no idea how much. She tried not to let the tears fall.

“Come here.” He requested softly. She crouched closer to him again and he kissed her. “It’s going to be okay.” Wasn’t that what she should be telling him?

***

It was late at night by the time Scully had finished her shift. As she walked quietly through the officers’ tent most of the men were already asleep. She snuck into Mulder’s bay at the end, closing the curtain behind her and was unsurprised to find him awake, sitting up and reading. His insomnia had come back in a big way since he’d be lying around all day doing nothing. When he was out in the field at least the physical exhaustion of trekking for miles and miles forced his mind to shut off and go to sleep come night time. 

He looked up and closed his book immediately at the sight of her. He was well used to her sneaking into his room after her shift finished but it was not usually this late. He had a mischievous look about him as he smiled warmly at her. He opened his mouth to speak but she held a finger up to her lips to silence him.

“I’m breaking you out.” She whispered dramatically.

She left the bay to retrieve the wheelchair she had stored outside earlier and wheeled it back in. The level to which his face lit up at the sight was enough to make her heart swell. She was so glad she’d decided to do it. She helped him up and into the wheelchair while he puffed and groaned as quietly as he could. It was clearly hurting him greatly but he persisted as Scully expertly manoeuvred him.

“Just for the record… I like this nineteen-tens, rule-breaker Scully.” He ground out the words against the pain. And finally he was settled in the chair.

“Just for the record…” Scully replied, her voice low and hushed: “… she likes you back.” She captured his lips once and then twice in solid, deep kisses. “Let’s bust this joint!” She exclaimed quietly as she began to wheel him out. 

They made it all the way outside, across camp and quite a way away from it without bumping into a single soul. Even in the middle of the night that was a miracle. Mulder told her she’d probably planned it just so but she hadn’t – once again they had been lucky. She wheeled him to the outskirts of the wooded area and turned him back around to face the camp. It was the first time he had been outside in weeks and she watched him as he gazed up at the sky. The night was clear and there were hundreds of stars shining down on them. There were so many things Scully did not enjoy about rural France but this – this made up for all of them.

“It’s beautiful.” Mulder commented absent-mindedly, taking the words right out of her mouth.

She climbed carefully into his lap and curled herself into his good side, her head resting on his shoulder. After a few moments she started brushing her lips against the pulse point in his neck. She felt him shudder in response and before she could stop herself she giggled. He huffed out a laugh in response as he held her tighter to him. And then he was gasping as she parted her lips and sucked on his skin instead.

“Mmm… Scully you know this is fulfilling about three different fantasies of mine right now.” He said when he had recovered enough to speak.

“Really?” She purred against him. “Shall we see if we can make it four?”

Her hand travelled down the front of his shirt to cup him through his pyjama pants. Her fingers traced over the hardening ridge of him and he hissed loudly. She could see him trying to calm himself down – she knew he wouldn’t want to embarrass himself and finish so quickly but unfortunately for him she wasn’t feeling particularly forgiving. Her warm hand dipped inside his trousers to bring him out into the cool air, earning her another hiss. Mulder tipped his head back and closed his eyes.

He opened them again when he felt her shift off of his lap. She could tell he’d assumed she was having second thoughts. And it would be fair enough – if anyone caught them she’d be in a lot more trouble than he would be. But then she knelt down to position herself between his legs and his eyes widened in sudden realisation. She grinned up at him like the Cheshire fucking cat.

“Fuck.” Mulder trembled. He actually trembled. “Scully… Scully… don’t…” He sounded incredibly unconvincing. He placed a hand on her shoulder to try and back up his exceedingly weak words.

“Why?” She asked him, all mock innocence playing in her voice. She watched as he swallowed loudly.

“Because it’s been months and it’s you and this and I’m going to last all of about three seconds if you do that.”

“Hmm…” Scully replied as she pretended to be genuinely considering it. “Best three seconds of your life though.” She teased him wickedly before her head disappeared between his thighs.

For the record he lasted all of about two minutes. And it was two of the best damn minutes of his whole life.

***

Scully checked her watch as she walked briskly through the camp. Fortunately it was not as late as she’d thought. She only had a limited time with him and she wanted to make the most of it – it was likely he would be discharged by the end of the week. Of course she was glad he was better. Frankly it had been a miracle how quickly he had recovered. But it meant he would soon be back in the thick of it and right back in harm’s way. Scully couldn’t think about it too much or she started to panic. Imagining him back on the front line made her feel as if she were about to throw up. He may have been bored stiff here while he recovered but at least she had been able to keep an eye on him. Even in the most dire situations when they had been partners it had always felt better when she was there to have his back, no matter what the danger was.

As she entered the officers’ tent she smiled at the friendly faces and ignored the knowing looks on the not so friendly faces. He had his curtain draw around his bed in the corner bay. It was one of the perks of the Sister being in love with you – you got the best bay on the ward.

“Knock knock.” Scully said lightly as she entered the bay and drew the curtain behind her.

She was brought out of her light mood at once by the sight of him. He was sitting on the side of the bed, clutching a letter and weeping openly. She rushed to him and reached out to touch his shoulder but he didn’t register her presence.

“Mulder? Mulder, what is it? Are you in pain?” She tried to keep the panic from her voice but she wasn’t sure it mattered – still it appeared he could not hear her. She used both hands to draw is head back to look at her. His eyes were entirely unfocused, she wasn’t even sure if he could see her. She visually checked him over for any obvious injuries but she couldn’t see any and when she pushed up his shirt to check the wound it was still properly bandaged with no blood seeping through. “Mulder talk to me!” She implored him.

“I don’t want to go back!” He sobbed suddenly. “Don’t make me go back, please!”

It was the first time she had ever physically felt her heart breaking in two. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and brought his face to rest against her middle. He clung on to the back of her uniform and cried even harder until he was barely breathing. She couldn’t help but think of the last time he had clung to her like that – the evening after his mother had died, when she’d come to tell him the results of her post-mortem. She’d held him all evening, trying to comfort him and he’d been so desperate, so hurt just as he was now. That night had changed everything between them. And then, only a few short weeks later, they had woken up in France, eight-six years in the past.

“It’s okay. It’s okay, I’ve got you. You’re okay.” She soothed as gently as she could. She tried her hardest to keep him from hearing the tears in her own voice.

“Scully, please!” He begged her and she had to choke back her sob. “I can’t do it. I can’t…” His breathing suddenly became even more erratic and she realised he was quickly spiralling into a full blown panic attack. She prised herself from his arms and took his face in her hands whilst she bend down to be eye to eye with him.

“Mulder look at me.” She said firmly. “Look at me and breathe with me. Come on, breathe.” She commanded him. She took slow, obvious breaths until he was following the same pattern. It started to calm him though he was still crying.

“Talk to me.” His eyes were locked onto hers, begging her to understand what he needed though she was not entirely sure she did. All she knew was that he looked so tortured and it was breaking her. “Tell me something – a story, anything…”

“Okay.” Scully agreed quickly, wanting to stamp out any re-rising panic. “Okay. Shall I tell you a story about us?” Mulder nodded and rested his head back against her. One of her hands found its way to his hair as she started to speak:

“Do you remember the night you taught me how to play baseball?” He silently nodded against her. “Well I have a small confession to make – I already knew how to play.” Mulder made a sound at the back of his throat that could have been a laugh or a cry. “At first I didn’t have the heart to tell you that. I mean things were still a little weird between us after everything that had happened that year.” Everything being almost exclusively Diana but Scully didn’t say that. “I could tell you were making an effort so I kept quiet. And then when you put your arms around me and pressed up against me it felt so… _good_.” She smiled at the memory. “There was no way I was going to say anything that might make it end any sooner. It scared the hell out of me… how much I wanted you. Sometimes I think it still scares the hell out of me.”

By the time she had finished talking his tears had almost completely stopped and his breathing had returned to normal. She gave a final stroke through his hair.

“Are you okay?” She whispered gently to him.

“Yeah. Thanks.” He sounded shaky but a lot better than he had. He pulled away from her and passed her the letter that was sitting on the bed. “My new posting. A new regiment. My old one… we lost a lot more men than I thought. There’s hardly any of them left.”

Scully silently read the letter from his Captain that detailed the heavy losses. She had to close her eyes against the horror of it and she didn’t even know these men. She couldn’t imagine what it must be like for him.

“I’m so sorry Mulder.”

“I’m sorry that I…”

“No. Don’t apologise.” The silence stretched on until it became uncomfortable. No. She wasn’t going to have that, not with everything they were both going through. There was no room for embarrassment over supposed vulnerability. “Can I hold you?” Mulder looked up in surprise at her request. She thought for a horrible moment that he was going to reject her but then his eyes softened.

“Please.”

She did just that. 


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Remembrance Sunday 08.11.20
> 
> They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;  
> Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.  
> At the going down of the sun and in the morning  
> We will remember them

“Thank you for convincing me to do this. I didn’t realise how much I needed to get out of camp for a while.” Scully told Sophie as they were finishing their meals at the inn in the local village.

Scully meant it – it had been a gruelling few weeks. The battles only seemed to be getting bloodier and bloodier and although everyone kept telling her they were making progress she had the benefit of hindsight that the others did not. She knew history would conclude that what little leeway they were making did not justify the heavy loses it took to make it. She was physically exhausted and the little sleep she did get was often interrupted by troubling dreams about Mulder. She was so worried about him. He’d seemed so broken at the thought of going back, not that she could blame him, and she hadn’t heard from him in weeks.

“I needed it too.” Sophie said, interrupting Scully’s thoughts just as a waiter came over and handed Sophie a note. She accepted it with thanks and then squealed with delight as she read it. “Come on, hurry up! We’ve got somewhere to be.”

“We have?”

Scully instantly did not like the sound of that. Sophie had matured a lot in the time she’d know her, both as a nurse and a woman, but squealing of that kind could only mean one thing – men, or more specifically, soldiers. And one way or another Scully had had just about enough of men in khaki uniforms.

Despite her better judgement Scully agreed to follow Sophie to their surprise destination. Mainly because she felt somewhat responsible for the younger woman and wanted to keep an eye on her. They finished their meal and Sophie led them to a building on the far side of the village that Scully hadn’t been to before. She heard it long before she saw it and when it did come into view about a dozen or so British soldiers were outside, all in various stages of inebriation. A couple more spilled out of the door as Scully and Sophie stood looking at it. The two men were swearing and shouting at each other, squaring up for a fight.

“Sophie…” Scully warned.

She really wasn’t sure about it. She did not want to judge these men that were literally living in hell on earth. If getting rip roaring drunk and paying for local, willing girls was what they needed to be able to survive it then it was none of her business. But she and Sophie really didn’t need to be in the middle of it.

“Come on, trust me.” Sophie implored as she walked to the entrance.

Scully followed her in, knowing with each step it was a mistake. Inside the scene was much the same only nosier and far, far busier. There were soldiers shoved into every available corner, all with drinks and cigarettes in their hands. The smoke was overwhelming and Scully had to choke back a cough. She had gotten used to the constant smoking since she had arrived in this world but this was something else. 

“Tommy!” Sophie suddenly shrieked and then ran over to a tall, light-haired solider to the right of the door they had just entered. He picked her up and spun her around as Scully made her way through the crowds to join them. “Dana, this is my big brother Tommy.” Brother. Okay, maybe it wasn’t going to be as bad as Scully had thought.

“Very nice to meet you.” Scully said genuinely and she held out her hand to shake his. Tommy dipped his head and kissed the back of her hand instead.

“So you’re Sister Scully?” Scully nodded. “My sister writes of little else in her letters – of how intelligent and inspiring you are.” From the corner of her eye Scully saw Sophie blushing.

“She flatters me.” Scully answered, a little uncomfortable. She knew Sophie looked up to her but she wasn’t out to be anybody’s hero.

“She didn’t write that you were also very beautiful.” Sophie’s face transformed into one of abject horror. She punched Tommy harshly on the arm.

“Oh give it a rest Tom! She’s far too good for the likes of you and anyway she’s spoken for.”

Scully’s eyes widened in surprise. She had never spoken to Sophie about Mulder but she supposed it wasn’t exactly hard to work out what with Mulder’s reaction to learning she was here and Scully’s own reaction when he’d been injured. Sophie looked at her, guilt flashing in her eyes as if she had done something wrong. Scully tried to smile reassuringly.

“I’ll go and get us both a drink.” Scully said, happy to leave Sophie in the care of her brother. She heard Tommy starting to introduce Sophie to all of his friends as she pushed her way through to the bar area.

“Are things really so different in America that you think you are going to get served here?” A familiar, sarcastic voice said from behind her. Scully turned to look at him.

“Frank. What are you doing here?”

“Are you and the delectable Nurse Simmons the only ones allowed an evening off?” Scully made a face at his tone of voice regarding Sophie. She knew he would never go there, not because he was smart enough to not mix business and pleasure but because Scully had threatened to personally neuter him if he ever tried it. Perhaps she needed to remind him again.

“I was just wondering if there was anybody left in camp.”

“Oh I’m sure Matron is there, _scowling_ around.” He did a very accurate impression of the Matron and her pinched up little face and Scully couldn’t help but laugh. The truth was she was relieved to see him; a male ally in such a place was never a bad thing.

“Well this settles it then. I was thinking this place might be less than respectable but now I see you frequent it, it must be true.” Frank put a hand over his heart as if wounded by her words.

“If only my dear. It’s not a whorehouse I’m afraid, it’s a pub. Now, I know in America…”

“I know what a pub is thank you very much.”

“Ah yes, I forgot about the Irish ancestry.” He leant forward and stroked a strand of her Irish-red hair as if to demonstrate his point. He was obviously a few pints down himself.

“I thought they only had pubs in England.”

“See that’s the thing – although geographically we are in France, look around – you’re in the middle of England I’m afraid.” Scully looked around at the other patrons. He was right; she was the only non-Englishmen amongst them.

“Are you going to buy me a drink then?” It was time to accept that it was happening; she was going to spend her evening here so she may as well drink. Perhaps it would even keep her strange nightmares at bay.

“I’d love to but not quite yet. I’ve got a surprise for you first.”

“Oh god, not you too.” Frank smiled warmly at her.

“Don’t worry, you’ll like mine better than Sophie’s.” He led her by the arm through the crowds of men to the back of the pub and then down a long, narrow corridor where they had to walk one at a time.

“Frank…” Scully warned, though she wasn’t really sure what she was warning him about. He threw his head back over his shoulder to reply:

“Don’t worry sweetheart I’m not after your non-existent virtue.”

Scully scowled at him and hit him lightly in the shoulder but he smiled at her anyway. She liked the easy banter between them; it reminded her in a way of the working relationship she used to have with Mulder. The line of professionalism was always a little blurred but it seemed to make them work so much better together. In the weeks and months in between seeing Mulder it made her feel less alone.

They finally reached the end of the corridor and Frank led her through a door to the outside.

“One special delivery for Sister Scully.” He announced as the door swung open. There was only one soldier standing in the little concrete area outside. His back was turned to them but he turned at the sound of Frank’s voice.

“Oh my god, Mulder!” Scully pushed passed Frank and was in Mulder’s arms before she could even register she was moving. Mulder gripped her tightly, one hand finding its way into her hair as seemed to be his custom as of late.

“You’re a sight for sore eyes.” He whispered to her. He turned his face into her neck and inhaled deeply.

“You’re welcome.” She heard Frank say from behind them but she didn’t move. “If you guys want a little extra alone time I can personally recommend that bush over there.” He said, pointing to said foliage. At this point Scully did disentangle herself from Mulder’s arms and turned to look at Frank.

“Thanks Frank, you can piss off now.” She told him firmly but not unkindly. He smiled and saluted them before he headed back inside. “Hi.” She whispered to Mulder as she turned back to face him. And damn her if there wasn’t tears in her eyes again. She felt as if all she did was cry whenever she was near him.

“Hi.” He reached out to wipe away the tears.

“What are you doing here?”

“We’ve got a new posting, further north. We’re stopping here overnight. I was going to try and sneak my way into camp but I ran into Frank on the way and he said he could get word to you to meet me here.”

“And you’re okay? How’re the stitches? Is the wound infected?” She fired out her questions at million miles a minute.

“The stitches are good.”

“Are you sure? I should look at them…”

“Are you going to strip me down here?” Mulder teased her and she smiled at her own intensity. She needed to chill out. She had been so wound up for so long and now she could finally relax in his arms. As if reading her thoughts he pulled her back into his embrace, his hands wandering back into her hair. “So, you’ve been painting the town red in my absence I see.” She huffed out a laugh against his neck.

“Well you know I figured I was bored with you so I’d try my luck with a tommy.” Mulder squeezed her tighter against him. Her gentle teasing could still produce a little jealousy in him and she’d be lying if she said it didn’t thrill her. She’d always figured she would be the jealous one but he gave her a run for her money.

“Are you okay? You look tired.” He observed gently.

“There’s just been a lot going on at the hospital recently. I’m okay.”

“Shall we get out of here? I can check us in to the Mariette?” She pulled away and started to nod at him but then stopped suddenly as she remembered something.

“Oh no Sophie’s here. I can’t leave her.”

“Frank said she was meeting her brother.”

“She has but he’s pretty far gone already.”

“Frank is here too.”

“Yes and if hasn’t already he’ll soon be picking out his local company for the evening. Sorry, I really don’t think I should leave her.” There was nothing she wanted more than to be alone, properly alone, with Mulder. Literally there was nothing she wanted more in the world. But although these men might be good men but there were also very drunk men and completely starved of female company. She would never forgive herself if something happened. “Can we stay for a bit, just until I know she’ll be okay?”

“Of course.” Mulder agreed. She could see he was disappointed but she knew he understood. “I’ll buy you both a drink.” He went to walk away, leading her back into the pub by the hand but she pulled him back towards her.

“First you need to greet me properly.” She told him seriously though her eyes were sparkling. He smiled and leant down, hovering over her lips but not quite touching them. “I missed you.” She whispered against him.

“I missed you too.”

And then his tongue did a pretty good job of showing her exactly how much he had missed her.

By a few drinks later, although they were not alone, they were both enjoying themselves immensely. A makeshift band had started and some of the less inebriated men had moved aside the tables and chairs to create a dance floor. Sophie had persuaded Scully to dance and she could see Mulder as he watched her from the bar. The music was fun and lively and the local women were mixing freely with the soldiers, some of them very much acting as if they were alone. When Sophie started to dance with a soldier Scully had seen her talking with earlier, she approached Mulder and held out her hand.

“Dance with me?” She requested, a little breathless. He smiled at her and stood, joining her. Mulder span her round to the upbeat music until the band suddenly changed to a slower song and he pulled her in close to him with a strong hand on her waist. The place was still crowded and they were pressed into each other in a way that could have raised eyebrows in the year two-thousand let alone nineteen-seventeen but in wartime all the rules were different. No one paid them any attention. 

“Remember the last time we did this? In Indiana?” Mulder asked. She hummed in acknowledgment as she rested her head on his shoulder. “I wanted to kiss you so much that night. I was such an idiot.” He said, sounding sad. Scully looked up and smiled at him.

“We both were. Kiss me now.” He kissed her, long and slow.

“ _Walk-ing in Memphis…_ ” He sang softly against her lips. She silenced him with another kiss until they were interrupted by a cough behind them. She turned to see Frank who looked as if he had sobered up remarkably.

“Sorry to interrupt you lovebirds. I’m going to take Nurse Simmons back to camp now – she’s a little worse for wear.” Scully look round to see Sophie slurring her way through an emotional goodbye with her brother. “I take it you won’t be coming with us Dana?”

“No, I’ll be back first thing.” Frank nodded and turned to leave. “Frank, behave yourself, I’m warning you…”

“I’ll be on my best behaviour I swear. I know my reputation precedes me but even I have some standards and a girl being fully conscious is one of them.” She saw Mulder smile as he stood next to her.

“Good to see you Frank.” Mulder said.

“You too.” The pair shook hands. “Take care and don’t let this one lead you too far astray.”

Frank and Sophie left a few moments later and as soon as they had Scully was pulling Mulder out of there too.

“In a hurry?” Mulder teased as she all but dragged him by the hand though the dark streets towards the hotel. She was practically running.

“You have no idea.”

“Oh honey, I think I do.”

***

The next morning at first light Scully rose from the bed and dressed in silence with Mulder watching her, half sitting-up amongst the covers. She couldn’t help the heavy sigh that escaped her as she fastened her corset.

“You’re quiet this morning.” Mulder commented. The night before had been wonderful, joyous in reunification, but now everything felt melancholic.

“I was just thinking.” She turned her head over her shoulder to look at him. “It’s less than a year now until the war will be finally over. I never thought we’d be here this long.”

“I know, me either.” He agreed.

“Will we go back to America when it’s done? Try and find our families?”

“I think so. If you want to. We can get stinking rich off of bootleg liquor and get out before twenty-nine.” She smiled at him but she knew it was a sad smile. The concern continued to deepen on his face.

“What if we don’t? What if we end up back in the present and we don’t remember any of this? I feel so changed… and as terrible as it has been sometimes I don’t want to forget. I don’t want to forger the people, the sacrifice… us…”

“That will not happen.” He told her as he moved to kneel at the end of the bed. He took her head in his hands and rested his forehead against hers. “Even if we do make it back I could never forget this. Never forget you or us.” The tears slipped from her eyes and for once she didn’t try and stop them. She didn’t know why she was crying or why this somehow felt like an ending. “I love you.” Mulder told her softly. “I love you so much and your beautiful little ass is tattooed onto my memory and I am never, ever forgetting it!” Scully laughed as she let herself be pulled into his embrace. “We’ll never forget this.” 


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We've got a little bit of Mulder POV in this chapter... hopefully it's not too jarring?!

Scully came too slowly, blinking sluggishly as she tried to orientate herself. She was lying in a hospital bed, a drip in her arm which she reached up and fingered lightly as if that would give her any answers. She frowned when it did not. Her mind was foggy as if it hadn’t quite caught up with her body and realised it was conscious yet. She couldn’t remember what had happened. After a few moments the curtain was suddenly pulled back and Frank entered, smiling at her when he saw she was awake.

“Welcome back sleeping beauty.” He teased her lightly.

“What happened?” She swallowed against the overwhelming dryness in her throat.

“You collapsed.” Frank replied as he checked the drip in her arm and then her pulse. It was strange to be on the end of his doctoring and not standing beside him.

“It’s probably my iron levels.”

“Yeah that’s what I thought too but I figured I best do a quick examination just to be sure…”

“And?” Scully prompted when he didn’t continue. He seemed hesitant to say whatever he had to say and he was never hesitant. It made her nervous. Frank took a big breath and sat on the side of her bed.

“And…” He said at last when he could no longer dodge her intent stare. “A congratulations are in order.” To this she only frowned, she had no idea what he was talking about. “You’re with child.” He said gently.

She heard the words but she could not process them. There was only one clear thought running through her head: it couldn’t be true.

“No.” Frank’s face transformed into one of sympathy. He looked down and didn’t answer. He’d assumed he had just given her news she didn’t want to receive but he didn’t understand. “No.” Scully repeated, her voice stronger than before. “That can’t be true.”

“Well I might not be a medical wonder like you but I think even I can correctly assess whether someone is pregnant or not.” As she continued to look at him with utter confusion he sighed and continued: “When was your last monthly?” Scully couldn’t help but grimace. She had been in the nineteen-tens too long – their sense of stuffy propriety had worn off on her. Frank of course was not bothered. “I’m guessing it was two or three months ago? And you’ve been feeling more tired than usual I know. And off of you food and nauseous. There is a tell-tale tightening in your abdomen.” He listed off all of the textbook symptoms that she suddenly felt very stupid for missing. “You’re going to have a baby Dana, in about seven or so months I’d say.”

“You don’t understand. I can’t have children, it’s not physically possible for me.” And still the denial was coursing through her. She couldn’t believe it. She wouldn’t believe it.

“I don’t know who told you that but they were wrong. Very wrong.”

He sounded so sure, his eyes imploring her to see the clear truth right in front of her. Once again she thought over the symptoms he’d described. He was right she had every one, she’d had them for weeks. She’d just thought she had picked up something or that the war was finally catching up to her in fatigue. And she was so worried about Mulder all the time. Oh god, Mulder! Her eyes filled with tears at the thought. Frank looked panicked and how did she know he would be so very crap at comforting her? Despite it all, she laughed aloud.

“Looks like you have a letter to write.” Frank smiled at her, relieved.

“No.” She denied again, her laughter dying at once.

“Dana you have to tell him.”

“I can’t write to him with this. He’ll want to come here.”

“Of course he will.”

“No, you don’t understand, he’ll do anything to get back here. He’ll do something stupid. I can’t distract him like that.”

“The baby might be here by the next time you see him Dana. You can’t stay here to have it. I can only protect you for so long.” Her heart warmed at the sentiment Frank would want to protect her at all. She smiled genuinely at him and reached for his hand. Suddenly she was calm. She had her man and child to protect – she knew what she had to do.

“I know. I’ll have to go to England.”

“Poor you.” Frank answered seriously, the distain for his green and pleasant homeland clear. “If there’s anything I can do…”

“Thank you. I don’t know what I’d do without you.” Scully was surprised to find how much she meant that. She knew she wouldn’t have survived the last three years without him though she could have never imagined feeling that way when she’d first arrived.

“God, how am I going to survive this hell without you?” Frank said gravely. She squeezed his hand and the silence hung heavy around them.

***

Mulder ran through the camp as quickly as he could trying to find her. As always it was a hub of activity with soldiers, doctors, nurses, all rushing about, busy with a never-ending amount of work to complete. He kept his eye out for that distinguishing streak of red hair sticking out from under her headdress. It had been months since he’d seen her and he could feel his fingers physically twitching at the mere thought that soon he would be touching her. He wasn’t looking where he was going and he literally ran head first into another body. The blow pushed him backwards harshly but he just about managed to stay on his feet.

“Sorry.” He apologised at once before he looked up and realised who it was.

“Frank, hey!” He greeted enthusiastically, shaking his hand. Frank greeted him back with a smile not as wide as Mulder would have expected. Perhaps he had arrived in the middle of something. It was hard to tell whether all of the chaos around them was the usual hospital chaos or incoming causalities from a particularly brutal fight chaos. “Do you know where she is?”

It was rude to jump straight to it but he knew Frank would understand. And he could catch up with him later. Though he found it rather strange that was something he genuinely wanted to do. He hadn’t been Frank’s biggest fan when he’d first met him – the knowing looks he had given him in that hotel when Scully was changing had riled him up. He didn’t like the possibility of someone causing trouble for them. And, though he’d never admit it to Scully, he was a little jealous of how close they had become. But Frank had proved himself a good friend to her and a good man, albeit a good man that needed to learn to keep it in his trousers.

“She’s not here Mulder.” Frank told him, sounding more serious than he’d ever heard him before. There was a rising feeling of panic in his stomach that he couldn’t quell.

“What do you mean? Where is she? In the village?”

“No.” Frank paused and the feeling in Mulder’s stomach grew. “She’s not in France, she’s in England.”

“England? Why, what happened?” Mulder demanded. He couldn’t fathom why she would have gone without writing to tell him or why she would have gone at all. She must have been forced out, kicking and screaming all the way. Someone must have found out about them, about their stays in the village.

“Nothing.” Frank lied. Mulder could tell he was lying. Hell, even if he hadn’t been a profiler he could have told he was lying. How Frank got away with so many extra-marital activities was a complete mystery. “She just wanted a change of pace.” Mulder looked at him as if he had grown a second head.

“We both know that’s bullshit. Tell me what’s going on.”

“You should go and talk to her, if you have time to get to England and back. She wrote to me last week, I can get you the address.”

“I don’t want the address! I want you to tell me what the hell is going on dammit!” Mulder shouted. He was aware of some passers-by stopping and looking worriedly in their direction.

“Mulder.” Again it was the most serious tone he had ever heard Frank employ. “It’s not my place. Go and see her, please.” Frank was almost begging him now and Mulder felt more helpless than ever. “I’ll go and get you the address.”

Frank left before Mulder could argue any further. It looked as if he was going to England and he didn’t have the slightest clue what he was going to find when he got there.

***

Mulder had managed to get a crossing to England later that same day. By the time he arrived in the right part of London it was late at night. He walked along the streets, clutching the address Frank had scribbled on a scrappy bit of paper. The area he was walking in was certainly not one of the higher ends of England’s capital. It was poor and dirty with any number of vagrants loitering around. He’d been offered no fewer than three sexual favours from locals girls touting for business and had almost had his pocket picketed. He hated the idea of Scully staying somewhere like this.

At last he found the right house and climbed the steps to the front door. It was already open a jar and as he pushed it open he found an old lady asleep in an armchair by the stairs, snoring loudly. She was clearly there to monitor exactly who went in and out of the establishment. If they were in another area Mulder may have thought she was there to keep up the propriety of the building but it seemed more likely she was there to charge patrons for the services they were about to receive. Again Mulder shuddered at the thought of Scully staying here. She clearly didn’t have a choice.

He climbed the stairs as quietly as he could manage and walked along the corridor until he found the correct number. He knocked quietly, mindful of the other inhabitants and waited. Nervous energy was coursing through him now he had finally stopped moving. After a few moments Scully came to the door. She was dressed in a robe and squinting out into the hallway, trying to see from the dim light shining inside her room.

“Mulder!” She gasped.

Instantly she threw herself into his arms and he held her close to him, breathing in her scent. That, if nothing else, remained unchanged. He’d found her. She was here. She was okay. She pulled him into her and shut the door behind them, all with her arms still wrapped around him. After several long moments he pulled back to look at her.

“Are you okay?” She nodded. “What are you doing here? Why aren’t you still in France?”

He tried his best to keep the accusation out of his voice. But the truth was he was hurt she hadn’t written to him – she’d written to Frank. Scully seemed nervous. She swallowed loudly a couple of times and was refusing to meet his eye. He waited. And thankfully she found her courage quickly and raised her head to face him. She took his hand in hers and brought it to the opening in her gown. She placed his hand on her growing belly.

“This is why.” She said, looking him square in the eye.

Shock. Pure shock. How had he not felt that before? Her stomach was protruding, almost comically and there could only be one explanation for it. Before he could comprehend what he was doing he’d dropped to his knees in front of her, both of his hands now clutching her bulging stomach.

“Oh my god… oh my god…” He could hear the tears in his own voice and he was totally overwhelmed. Scully ran her fingers through his hair, silently soothing him. “Scully how is this… how did this happen?”

“I think you know how. You were there.” He smirked, he couldn’t help it. He looked up at her in utter disbelief.

“But…”

“I know. I guess whatever they did to me in our world, it hasn’t happened in this world.”

“I told you not to give up on a miracle.”

“Well I wasn’t expecting to have to go to quite these lengths to achieve it!” She laughed. He laughed too. And then he leant forward and placed a reverent kiss to her stomach.

“You’re okay? You’re both okay?”

“We’re okay.” She replied simply. He rose to his feet and kissed her strongly on the mouth, his hands tangling deep into her hair the way his heart was tangled deep with hers.

“I’m not going back.” He told her assuredly. Scully closed her eyes and sighed as if those had been the words she’d been expecting and dreading. He was painfully predictable he knew that but he wasn’t going to be talked down from this.

“Mulder you have to.”

“I’m not leaving you alone here, in this place, _Jesus Scully_!” He exclaimed as he looked around the dishevelled room in disgust. Scully looked oddly offended which he found absurd – surely she could see it was a shithole.

“I don’t have any money, it’s the only thing I can afford.”

“I have money. Or my family must do at least. I’ll write to Sam and ask her to send some over.”

“And what are you going to say? _Hi Sam, can you somehow take a load of money without our parents noticing and send it over as I’ve accidentally knocked up a random field nurse?_ ” Mulder looked at her in complete confusion. He didn’t understand why they were arguing about this. “And anyway even if we got the money where would we go? You don’t go back they’ll come looking for you and if they find you they shoot you.”

“Well they better not find us then.”

“We can’t go on the run with a new born baby Mulder!” Scully shouted at him. He started to pull at his own hair in frustration. What did she want from him? Because it was clear he had absolutely no idea.

“What do you suggest then?!”

“That we do what you said… that we wait this out until it’s over. It’ll only be a few more months, we know that. We know the end is in sight. It’s almost over.”

“But it’s not over yet and I need to stay alive until it is.”

“You’ve manged it so far.”

“By luck, not judgement! That luck has got to run out at some point.” She turned her back on him, as if she were unable to even consider the possibility.

“Why would you say that?” She whispered. Her voice was heavy with tears and it took all the fight out of him. Mulder took a big breath and tried to calm down.

“Scully I’m just trying to think about what’s best for the baby. We’ve got to give them every chance we’ve got – surely that means you not staying here for starters. Stop being so stubborn.”

“It’s nineteen-eighteen Mulder!” Scully suddenly exploded from nowhere. She turned back towards him, her eyes ablaze with anger and something else entirely. Mulder took an unconscious step back. “It’s nineteen- _fucking_ -eighteen! Do you know what that means? How much higher the infant mortality rate is? How much more could go wrong? It doesn’t matter where I am… the risks are still there and I’m terrified Mulder. I’m terrified.”

She was sobbing by the end, almost incomprehensible as she cried and cried. He knew all of the fear she must have been holding in since she’d found out about the pregnancy was coming out in one awful rush and there wasn’t a damn thing he could do about it. He pulled her into his arms and she came easily, all but collapsing against him, clinging onto him for dear life. He had done this to her and he hated himself for it.

“It’s okay… it’s okay Scully. We’re going to figure this out, okay. We just need time to think about this. It’s all going to be okay.” He reassured her shakily as he stroked her hair. It was the same thing he had told her over and over again throughout this war but somehow it had never seemed more untrue as it did right now. 


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So ... fair warning this chapter is very, very angsty. It deals with extremely dark themes around death, suicidal thoughts and miscarriage. Please bear this in mind before reading.

It was the busiest platform Scully had ever seen – as they rushed through the station hand in hand, it was so crowded she couldn’t even see the floor from all of the feet. They were nearly all soldiers and their loved ones saying countless goodbyes on busy corners. Nearly four years into the war and the excitement of those beginning months were well and truly gone. People understood now this would likely be the last time they saw their husband or brother or son. The mood was sombre.

Mulder was late for his train and he was walking briskly, gripping her hand so tightly it was almost painful. But it was necessary, she was sure to get swept up in the throngs of people if he let go. Still she was struggling to keep up with him, she wasn’t exactly moving at her fastest. After what felt like hours they finally came to a part of the platform that was slightly less manic and Mulder stopped abruptly and turned towards her, causing her stomach to push into him. He steadied her with a hand to her hip.

“Well I guess this is me.” Mulder sounded sombre too. “Are you sure you’re going to be alright?”

“Yes.” She said with much more confidence than she felt. She rose as high as she could onto her tiptoes, which admittedly was not very high at all right now, and kissed him with her hands on his chest to steady herself. He placed his own hands over hers and stroked the new piece of mental that rested against her finger.

“Look after yourself.” He said seriously and then in a much lighter tone: “ _Mrs Mulder_.”

They’d been married for less than twenty four hours. Of all the crazy notions he’d tried to convince her of over the years it had turned out that this was one of his easiest sells. She’d said yes without hesitation.

“Mulder I need you to remember that you have a family to come home to now.” She said quietly but firmly. “We’re going to be waiting for you when all of this is over.” Scully took his hand and placed it over her stomach. “I know your men need you but we need you too. Remember that.” She hoped her warning was clear: it was time to leave the unnecessary heroics behind. He had responsibilities now. Mulder nodded – they both knew it was a promise. And then suddenly Scully winced as the baby started kicking firmly against Mulder’s hand. He beamed down at her.

“He’s kicking like crazy! Maybe he’s going to be a soccer player!” Mulder smiled.

“He?” She teased but he only shrugged his shoulders, his face still beaming.

“One minute to boarding!” A conductor bellowed from somewhere along the platform.

“You need to go.”

“I love you.” Mulder said earnestly.

“I…” But she stopped as Mulder shook his head.

“I’ve loved you from the beginning. Right from that first case when I told you about Sam. You’ve always been so important to me and I don’t think I’ve done a good job at showing you that…” He appeared very emotional all of a sudden and it chocked her up too. His goodbye sounded too permanent. She didn’t like it.

“No, I knew. Mulder you went to the end of the earth for me – _literally_.” They shared another watery smile. “I knew and I know now and I’d do the same for you.”

“Not right now – you can barely make it down the stairs.” He joked lightly. And then he kissed her again and dropped to his knees to place a lingering kiss to her belly. “You’ve made me far happier than I ever thought possible.” He said as the whistle blew. She wasn’t sure if he was talking to her or the baby but she found she didn’t care.

“I love you.” Scully called as he was bundled onto the train in a sea of broken men. The train started to pull out of the station at once. She only managed to keep sight of him for a few more seconds before he blended into all of the other khaki around him. The train curved round on the track and slowly faded from view. 

***

The bullet came. As soon as it hit he knew it was going to be the one. He’d heard some of the more superstitious men say it before – that a bullet had your name on it and you’d know as soon as you heard it – he’d never believed it himself but it turned out they were right. He fell to the ground, groping vaguely at the wound already pouring red onto his uniform but he knew it wouldn’t do anything. It was his time. It had been a miracle he had lasted this long and now when the time had finally come he found he was only thinking of Scully. Of what this would mean for her. He didn’t know where he was going but wherever it was he hoped she was there.

Suddenly there were more hands on his wound, applying pressure. He saw one of his men, Private Hardcourt, leaning over him and looking worried, very worried.

“You need… to work… on you… your poker face.” Mulder coughed out his joke. It was much harder to talk than he thought it would be. Hardcourt grimaced.

“Just stay still Pops, help is on the way.”

But they both knew it wasn’t. There were no stretcher bears coming, they were not in battle, instead it was a routine check of the wire fencing. It was early and his men had been sleeping, enjoying some well-earnt rest. Mulder had chosen to accompany Hardcourt himself rather than wake any of the other men. The German soldier had gotten lucky – he thought they’d been too far away to be in range of the guns.

“My pocket…” Mulder wheezed, trying to take a pouch out of the inside pocket of his jacket. He couldn’t get his arms to work. Hardcourt helped him, retrieving the pouch and opening the tin case within it. Mulder’s clumsy fingers reached for Scully’s picture. It was the only one he had of her here, sitting in her nurses’ uniform and looking proud. He held it to his chest, wanting to be closer to her.

“Is that your Mrs, Pops?” Mulder nodded. He felt so cold. “What’s her name?”

“Scully… Dana…”

“She looks lovely.” Hardcourt said genuinely. “Tell me about her.” Mulder knew Hardcourt was trying to keep him talking but it was no use, the pull of the dark unconscious was just too strong. He just wanted to sleep now.

“She’s perfect.” Never a truer word had been spoken.

“She must be if puts up with you.” Hardcourt teased but Mulder could hear the tears in his voice.

“Write to her… tell her it… it was quick. I didn’t suffer… I wasn’t scared.” Mulder rasped, using all of his remaining energy. She wouldn’t believe him, he knew that but he had to try. All of his last efforts had to go on trying to make this easier for her.

“Of course I will Pops.” Hardcourt was full on crying now. “You’re a good man. You’ve been very good to me.”

He liked Hardcourt. He liked all of his men. He felt responsible for them and he didn’t want to leave them. Light bled into the corners of his vision and he knew it was time. A strong sense of peace washed over him like a wave.

“Scully…” He breathed. And then he was gone.

***

Scully lie in bed staring blankly ahead at the wall opposite her. The noise of the busy London street outside sounded hazy and far off, as if she were hearing it through a thick fog. Mulder was gone. He was gone and it was all her fault. He hadn’t wanted to go back and she’d made him, convincing herself that if he’d made it this far he could see it out. She didn’t want him to have to bear the badge of coward for her sake. And now he was dead. His cold body was in a shallow grave somewhere in France because of her.

She stared at the telegram that had arrived two days earlier, still lying open on the desk. Everything felt numb. She hadn’t slept or eaten since it had arrived. She hadn’t cried. The baby in her stomach was still – she hadn’t felt it move since she’d received the telegram. If she was in any right state of mind she may have been concerned about that but she wasn’t. The baby was grieving in its own way for a father it would never meet.

What was she doing here? What good was coming from any of this? She didn’t know anymore. If she’d enough energy she would have staggered the short distance to the Thames and thrown herself in there, a rock or two in her pockets just to be sure. She told herself it was the baby that stopped her doing it but it wasn’t – she simply couldn’t be bothered to move. She couldn’t be bothered with anything, even that.

Scully heard her landlady shuffling along the corridor and after a couple of moments there was a knock on the door. The usually brisk woman had been uncharacteristically kind to her but she had no time for it.

“Miss Scully?” The landlady called softly. She wasn’t Miss Scully anymore, she had a husband – a dead husband. When she didn’t answer the landlady entered anyway, carrying a package in her arms. “This just arrive for you my dear. From France…” Scully continued to stare vacantly ahead. “It’ll be his things I expect. They do that… send over their clothes and the things they had on them when…” She stopped abruptly. “I’ll leave it for you here then.” She placed the package down on the desk. “And I’ll bring you some more soup in a little while.” She said as she collected the untouched soup she had brought a few hours earlier and left the room.

Sometime later, Scully was unsure of how long but it had started to grow dark outside her window, she sat up and picked up the package. She vaguely registered that it was heavier than she’d been expecting. Though if it had his uniform in it she shouldn’t have been surprised. She had to cover her name on the address tag as she pulled open the paper. She couldn’t bear to see it staring back at her in black ink: _Mrs F. Mulder_. It wasn’t her name, it was his. It belonged to him and she didn’t want to have it without him.

The smell hit her as soon as she opened it: she’d recognise it anywhere – it was the same smell she’d lived with for over three years in France. The very specific combination of mud and blood. His uniform was covered in both. He’d clearly bled out. It wasn’t a quick and painless death then.

She moved through the contents of the parcel with the same detached deadness. His tags were in there, a couple of books, cigarettes and matches. He’d said he hadn’t been smoking. He’d obviously lied. There was a photograph of her in her nurses’ uniform. She could no longer make out her face – there was a bloody finger shaped print over it. Scully tossed it aside. She found a letter that was once again addressing her in a way she didn’t want to see. The hand was not Mulder’s, it was one she did not recognise. Scully opened the letter and began to read:

_Dear Mrs. Mulder, I’m so sorry to have to write you this letter. I know there is not much I can say to ease your grief but I promised Pops I would write and I don’t want to let him down. There is not much to say in regards to how it happened. Only that it was over very quickly and he did not suffer. He was brave to the last and he did you proud._

_I think you must already know this but I would like to tell you that he was a good man. We called him Pops on account of his age but the truth is he was nothing like my old man. He was kind. He looked after us and listened to us. I think that’s all I needed half the time – to feel like I was being listened to, that I was being heard. We were all very proud to serve under him and would have gladly followed him anywhere._

_Perhaps, when all of this over and if by the grace of God I survive, perhaps you would permit me to come and visit you? I would like to return his kindness._

_The enclosed was found on his person after he had passed. I believe he was writing it that same morning but he did not get to finish it. I hope it brings you some comfort to hear his thoughts on his final day._

_I pray I may meet you in this life Mrs. Mulder and if we are not so fortunate, I know I will see you in the next. God bless you and may God rest his soul in peace._

_Yours sincerely, Private Samuel Hardcourt._

And still Scully felt nothing. The letter was filled with meaningless promises and empty lies. Mulder’s death had not been quick. Not if he’d had the time to ask this private to write to her, not if he’d had the time to bleed all over his uniform, to take out her picture and hold it in his bloody hand as the life seeped from his body litre by litre. There had been plenty of suffering. He’d died in agony and fear just like the hundreds and thousands of men she had seen die in the last few years. All hurt and lonely and miles and miles from their loved ones. And as for God… God would not rest Mulder’s soul in peace. God had abandoned them. There could be no God in this world, in a world in which this could happen.

She shoved the letter back with Mulder’s other belongings and as she did another letter fell out. This one had handwriting she would have recognised anywhere. With her hand shaking slightly, Scully bend down and picked it up. She read:

_Scully,_

_Have you ever had one of those dreams that was so realistic even after you’ve woken up you can still smell and taste it? I had one last night. We were in a hotel room in Florida; the one we stayed in after we never quite made it to that team building seminar. And you brought wine and cheese to my room. Your cancer had only just gone into remission and you had this glow about you that was so beautiful – it was as if every time I looked at you your entire being was shining with the fact that you were going to live. And it made you brave. Brave enough to come to my room with wine and cheese and look at me in a way that utterly terrified me. I wasn’t ready then. But because this was my dream I didn’t run away this time, I stayed and we ate cheese and drank wine and talked and laughed. God your laugh. It rang so clearly in my head, I could still hear it when I woke up. I could still feel you lying next to me. I could still smell you as I buried my face in your neck. For a moment the trenches, the other men and the rats – they all disappeared from around me and it was only you that filled all of my senses. It was divine. I think_

The words stopped abruptly. He’d obviously been called away, probably to the very task that had killed him. Scully stared at the last sentence: _I think… I think… I think…_ She would never know what he was thinking. She could never ask him what he was going to say. She could never speak to him again or hear his laugh or see his smile, watch his face scrunch up in concentration or his eyes dance with a new, utterly crazy notion. It was gone. All of his ideas and memories and plans and feelings. It was all gone.

Suddenly Scully screamed. She screamed and screamed and screamed – the sound coming out of her like nothing she’d ever heard. She sounded like a wounded animal; a primal and ancient sound, as old as life itself. Endless sorrow flooded through her as she finally felt it, felt everything all at once. And she was sobbing, moaning, clawing at her own skin. She didn’t want to be here, she couldn’t be here…

She stood in a rush, throwing the contents of the parcel from her lap. She pushed over the chair and threw a lamp at the wall watching it shatter, all against the backdrop of the most distressing noises still coming from inside of her. She shoved herself against the desk but it wouldn’t move so she slapped her hands down on it until they were stinging. She needed to destroy everything in the room, everything in her life, she needed to destroy it all. She needed to feel something other than this overwhelming grief. And at last the universe answered her call…

The stab of pain in her stomach was so intense she stopped moving at once. Instinctively her hands went to her belly as she called out with the pain. She felt a gush of fluid fall from between her legs, the baby was coming, it must be coming, now of all times. But then as she looked down it wasn’t her broken waters that she saw – it was blood. A lot of blood. Almost as much as had been on Mulder’s uniform. The pain in her stomach kept exploding until she saw stars. The baby was leaving her too. It was going to join Mulder. With any luck it would take her with it.

Scully swayed on the spot for a moment and then she passed out. 


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is still super angsty but we are heading toward our happy ending, so don't hate me too much!
> 
> Continuing heavy themes from the last chapter including death and miscarriage. Once again please bear this in mind before reading.

Scully woke with a gasp and sat up so quickly she felt instantly dizzy. The heartbeat hammering in her ears was loud and endless. Her head felt foggy, she was having trouble orientating herself even as she blinked a few times before realising this was because she was in the pitch black. This only seemed to increase her panic and then suddenly she was retching. Scully just made it to the toilet before she threw up. Her body moved around the furniture without conscious thought, a room she knew so well it didn’t need to be lit. She breathed heavily, crouched over the toilet bowl as she finally stopped retching. A cold sweat trickled down her back and she shivered as she tried to work out what was happening.

After a few moments she crawled to the bathroom doorway and with all of the strength she had she pulled herself up on the doorframe to turn on the light. Scully blinked harshly against the brightness of it, instantly sagging back down to the floor.

She tried to recall the techniques she’d learnt years ago, when she was a teenager and had first began to be plagued by panic attacks. She wasn’t fully in one yet but she could feel it coming as she still struggled to clear her head and remember what’d happened.

There was a creeping feeling in the back of her mind that she should be remembering something, something big and, if the apprehension in her gut was anything to go by, something awful. But she couldn’t for the life of her remember what that something was.

Instead Scully focused on her senses. She started with what she could see, five things she could see: the toilet, the shower, the bathmat, the cabinet, the mirror. She moved onto the things she could feel: the hard flooring beneath her, the cabinet against her back, her silk pyjamas beneath her fingertips… pyjamas… she was in pyjamas and it was dark outside so it must be night time. Her heavy brain processed the fact slowly. That was good, that meant she was getting there. Things she could hear next: the fan that came on with the bathroom light whirring quietly, her own breathing deliberately slow, and, if she really concentrated, the faint night time traffic of the city outside. This was good too. She knew those sounds, they were the sounds of her apartment. She was home and she was safe.

And then in one horrible moment she realised. She was home. She was home in her apartment – her D.C. apartment with electricity and heating and nineties silk pyjamas.

At once her hands flew to her stomach, expecting to feel the familiar bulge there but of course it was gone – her top lying flat on her equally flat stomach. There was no internal movement. There was no life. She was back in her world and in her world she could not get pregnant.

A sob escaped her before she could stop it and her hands continued to cradle her empty womb. She felt so empty without the near constant fluttering she’d been used to. She was alone. Utterly, _utterly_ , alone.

“I’m so sorry.” Scully whispered tearfully to her baby that no longer was. “I’m so sorry I didn’t look after you better.”

When would she learn? She wasn’t capable of being a mother – the universe had shown that to her time and time again. Mulder had said not to give up on a miracle but that was exactly what she should have done, a long time ago.

_Mulder!_

“Oh god.” Scully said as she stood up so fast she had to cling onto the doorframe to stop herself from falling. If she was back then maybe he was too. Alive. He might be alive. As soon as her head had stopped spinning she rushed back into the bedroom and grabbed the phone from her bedside. She switched on the lamp and she hastily dialled his number. The call was just connecting when Scully suddenly hung up and threw the phone from her hands with an anguished cry.

She couldn’t do it. She couldn’t bear to find out one way or the other. Because what if it was the other – what if she was back and he wasn’t? She wasn’t sure she would survive it. And what if he was back but remembered nothing? What if it hadn’t happened to him and it was all some elaborate, crazy dream? Mulder was always ready to believe the impossible but she wasn’t sure she could make even him believe this. And if he didn’t remember… she wasn’t sure she would survive that either.

All of these thoughts swirled in her head and in a daze Scully walked into the kitchen and looked at her calendar. It was still marked to the same month, the same week as when she’d suddenly woken up in France. Four years. She’d been gone four years but time, it seemed, had not moved on here. Her stomach began to swim again as she placed a hand over her mouth to try and stop herself being sick. Scully’s arms shook as she steadied herself on the kitchen sink. She’d spent so long wishing to be back and now she was it somehow wasn’t what she wanted at all. She wanted her other life back – but no, she didn’t want that either. She wanted both – she wanted the safety of two-thousand D.C. and the husband and child of nineteen-eighteen Europe.

She was crying again. Crying and white knuckling her sink and mourning everything it now seemed had not happened at all. Frank and Sophie and her baby and Captain Mulder who had promised to love her forever. It was gone. It had never even been in the first place. 

Scully jumped at the soft knocking on her front door. The utter surprise of it ceased her tears at once. She glanced at her clock above the stove – it was ten past three in the morning. There was only one person that would usually be knocking on her door at this time of night but that had not been a Mulder knock. A Mulder knock was always insistent not matter what time of day. She stayed completely still for a moment before another knock, just as soft, compelled her to move. Scully took a deep breath and wiped her eyes before she opened the door.

She hadn’t checked the peep hole first and she didn’t know why but then the door was open and all of the breath left her body at the sight of him. He was standing in front of her, breathing – alive. She could see him again and speak to him again and touch him again. He was real.

Neither of them moved nor spoke as they regarded each other intensely but with a certain amount of wariness. She saw the same trepidation in his eyes that was surely shining in her own. Did that mean..?

“Scully…” Mulder croaked.

_Scully… Scully, do you… do you know who I am?_

She closed her eyes against the memory of it. Their first meeting in the other world. He remembered. His voice sounded broken and it broke her too.

“You’re alive! Oh god, you’re here!”

She exclaimed as she threw herself into his arms. She clung onto to him desperately as if she were drowning and he was the only lifeline. He held her with just as much force, crushing her against his chest and squeezing her so tightly she couldn’t breathe. Mulder cried loudly and unselfconsciously against her.

“You’re okay. You’re okay. Tell me you’re okay?” He said, his words holding just as much force as his grip on her.

“I’m okay.” She confirmed.

He pulled back to look at her again, needing more confirmation still. His hand stroked down her face harshly, blindly reaching out to touch any part of her he could. A sound from inside one of the other apartments suddenly interrupted them and she pulled him inside at once, closing the door behind him. As soon as they were alone he was wrapping her in his arms once again as he kissed the side of her head repeatedly, breathing her in.

“It’s okay.” He told her between kisses as if he clearly wasn’t just as overwhelmed as she was. “Everything is okay.” Perhaps he was telling himself. Scully felt him freeze suddenly and pull away from her. “The baby?” He asked at the same time his gaze darted down to her stomach. She saw the exact moment his eyes registered her flat, childless belly. Sorrow clouded his face at once. He looked back at her and she shook her head, biting her lip as hard as she could to stop herself sobbing. She couldn’t bring herself to say the words.

“We’re back in our world.” Scully said instead. Her voice was shaking so much it was barely coherent. “I can’t get pregnant here.” Fresh tears fell from Mulder’s eyes.

“I’m so sorry.” He whispered roughly. Her heart was breaking all over again. She wasn’t sure she’d ever really appreciated how much he’d wanted it too but it was written so clearly across his face now. She brought his forehead down to meet hers.

“I’m sorry too.”

“What happened? How did you get back here? Do you know?” Scully shook her head against his questions.

“Not really. You… died…” She forced out the words though her whole body was clenching to keep them inside.

“Yeah. As soon as I’d gone I woke up here… in my apartment. Did you..?” Mulder looked stricken at what he was trying to ask her.

“I’m not sure.” She replied honestly. “I was in my room in London and I was reading the letter you wrote on the morning you’d…” She deliberately avoided saying the word again. “I was…” Scully stopped. She didn’t know how to explain what she had been doing. She’d been losing her mind – violently and horrifically losing her mind but she didn’t want to tell him that. “I was so upset… And then I felt my waters break only when I looked down it wasn’t my waters it was… blood. A lot of it. And then I passed out and woke up here.”

Mulder swallowed thickly. His jaw was clamped together and twitching from all of the emotion he was trying to repress. He looked ready to explode with it.

“This is all my fault.” He said resolutely.

And _by-god_ it was so like him, so utterly like him that despite everything she found herself smiling slightly. They’d been to hell and she wasn’t entirely sure they were yet back from it but some things would never, ever change. Mulder was still Mulder – still the martyr extraordinaire. Ridiculously it made her realise that they would be okay. Not now and probably not for a long time to come but Mulder was still Mulder and Scully was still Scully and they were together and they would be alright.

Mulder frowned at her.

“I love you.” She told him, watching the surprise erupt on his face. “Do you love me?”

“Of course I do.”

“Then kiss me.”

He did. They melted into each other and gave in easily to the comfort the other was providing. Every time Mulder pulled back slightly Scully carried on kissing him, desperate to feel nothing except his lips on hers. At last he got the message and stopped trying to end the embrace. He drew her in closer to him and laced a hand through her hair – his signature move. When at last she did pull back, panting harshly from the lack of air, she fixed him with a strong stare:

“I’m never going to stop.” She told him. “I’m never going to stop kissing you and loving you and being with you.” She quoted his own letter back to him and through all of his grief his eyes danced just the tiniest bit in recognition. She let the promise hang heavy around them and then, silently, she took his hand and led him into the bedroom.

***

A long time later Scully rose from the bed and left Mulder sleeping there. Even in slumber he looked exhausted and she didn’t have the heart to wake him but she knew she wouldn’t sleep herself. Her mind was still buzzing. Being with Mulder had alleviated some of her anxiety but now it was quiet again she found she was still jittery.

Scully made tea and then, without thinking, went to the computer.

By the time Mulder had awoken a few hours later she had found everything she’d set out to. Not that she understood any of it but at least now she knew.

Mulder looked sleepy and soft and a small warmth bloomed deep in her stomach.

“Hey, how long have you been up?” He asked as he stretched and yawned.

“A while.”

“Why didn’t you wake me?”

“You’ve just come back from the dead, you deserve your rest.” Scully wasn’t sure if she was trying to joke or not but either way her voice was flat. She sniffed and only then did she realise she’d been crying. At once she felt the stiffness of dried tears on her cheeks. Mulder frowned and made his way over to her.

“Are you okay? What are you doing?” He asked with concern.

“I was looking for us. I… I wanted to see if we were actually there… but we weren’t of course.” She tried to keep the wobble out of her voice. “There’s no record of anyone with our names ever being in France. It wasn’t real.” Scully couldn’t articulate why but she felt devastated. Completely and utterly devastated.

“That doesn’t mean it wasn’t real.” Mulder replied with conviction. He gathered her into his arms, her face pressed against his stomach as he stood by her. “It was real.” He said again.

“They were real. I… I found them.” She pulled back to look at him. “Frank and Sophie and some of the others from the hospital.” Mulder’s eyebrows rose in surprise. She’d been shocked too, shocked and wholly moved. She was feeling everything so keenly, all of her emotions so close to the surface that she felt out of control and she hated that. She gripped onto Mulder to try and stabilise herself.

“Do you know what happened to them after the war?” Scully couldn’t help the shudder that escaped her at the question.

“There was no after the war for them. There was an air raid a few weeks after we…” She swallowed thickly against her rising feelings. “The village and the camp were both hit. They both died.”

“I’m so sorry Scully.” He whispered, his lips against her head, trying to hold her firm against the shaking of her own body.

“The private that wrote to me… Harcourt, he died too… shot… only two weeks before the Armistice was signed.” Somehow that seemed crueller than anything else. To make it so closed to the end, when the ending had already been decided, just waiting for a more symbolic date. Mulder was breathing heavily but he said nothing. “What was it for? What was any of it for Mulder?” She cried openly against him. He held her tighter but she didn’t understand. It couldn’t have all been for nothing, it just couldn’t. “We didn’t make any difference… we didn’t help anyone…”

“That’s not true. Think about all of the men you did help, all of the men you saved. If Sophie and Frank were real then they were too and they lived because of you.” Mulder said firmly. She shook her head, crying harder. Mulder crouched down and took her head in his hands forcing her eyes to look at him. “Scully…”

“They died for nothing. Their lives meant nothing!”

All of those people so vibrant and alive, that had meant so much to her. They were dead. All dead and gone, had been dead and gone for decades. They’d died fifty years before their time and she couldn’t bear it.

“No, they didn’t. Not if we remember them they didn’t. Scully, come here.” Scully fell into his lap as he lowered them both to the floor.

“I can’t bear it.” She said aloud.

“Yes you can. You can because you have to. We’ll bear it together.” Mulder promised.

And in his arm she cried and cried until at last, entirely exhausted and spent, she slept right there on the floor.


	10. Epilogue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Real talk: I'm not sure this is worth the mega long wait but I wanted to get it finished.
> 
> Thank you for all the love for this story - much like Scully in her Red Cross Nurse's uniform you guys are iconic!

Scully watched as the little one toddled about, only just stable enough to walk unaided, amongst the long grass between the stones that were taller than she was. Every couple of steps the little girl would look back to make sure her father was still following her and then squeal in delight at the confirmation that he was. Mulder laughed right back, every single time, he laughed back. Scully closed her eyes and listened to them and their sounds of happiness, interrupted only by the light breeze caressing its way through the trees. For the first time in months she felt calm – they had made it.

Coming to France had been a big decision and although it had been Scully’s idea she was aware of how traumatic it could be for both of them. There was still so much about each other’s experience that they didn’t understand, that they might never understand, that she felt in constant danger of accidentally re-traumatising him. Mulder was as stoic as ever, telling her constantly that everything would be okay – she wondered if he truly felt that every time he said it or if he was just saying the words to make her feel better. But they weren’t in a war anymore and she didn’t need his stoicism. She needed him to be honest with her.

Listening to him now, chasing their daughter and laughing with her in the afternoon sun, Scully finally believed him. She believed they would be okay.

The village had been all but unrecognisable. A lot of the buildings had been destroyed in the air raid of nineteen-eighteen and destroyed again during the Second World War. The ones that had been built and rebuilt in their place held no resemblance to the structures she remembered. Even the buildings that had survived were hard to contextualise against the twenty-first century backdrop. The fields that had housed the hospital were now a residential estate – it had its own school and shops and even a park. Scully didn’t know if it was better or worse that this felt a million miles away from their experiences here. It made it feel less real and more like a dream, one that she was forgetting a little more of with each passing day. But as she opened her eyes and read the names in front of her she reminded herself that it had been real. And this was the proof.

Frank and Sophie had been buried side by side towards the back of the village cemetery surrounded by half a dozen others, some Scully recognised the names of and some she did not, but they all bore the same date of death. The eight victims of the air raid. And even after all this time the headstones remained and the names were visible. They hadn’t been forgotten and dumped into a nameless mass grave like so many others. In that regard they were the lucky ones, though Scully had a hard time truly making herself think that way.

“Sorry it’s taken me so long to get here.” Scully said as she released a shaky breath and turned to address Frank’s tombstone. She needed to do this – it’s what she’d travelled all this way for. “I’ve wanted to come for a long time but the morning sickness was insane this time around and then after… well the idea of a seven and a half hour flight with a new-born…” Sully shuddered just thinking about it. “I figured you’d waited eighty odd years what was one more. Though if you can hear me now I’m guessing you’re just wetting yourself laughing at the idea of me travelling all this way to talk to thin air. This is just my way of… saying thank you.” The last words felt heavy in her throat as if they were made of concrete.

All of the images she had of Frank filled her mind. The laughing and joking and crying and fighting so hard together, him being always by her side. The baby made a particularly loud squeal and it drew Scully’s attention over to them just in time to see Mulder finally bend down and scoop her up, pretending to gobble her. She was beside herself with excitement.

“Her name is Frances.” Scully said, still looking over at them. “Frances Sophia Mulder.” She turned back to address the two gravestones in front of her. Both of her daughter’s namesakes. “You’d probably laugh at that too… call me a stupid, sentimental American and you’d be right. God!” Scully laughed suddenly. “I wish I could have seen your face when I told you we’d named her after you.” She could picture it now: a shy pride mixed with abject horror. She continued to laugh at the image until she heard footsteps approaching. Scully turned to see a woman stopping just behind her, carrying a large bouquet of flowers. 

“Bonjour.” The woman greeted her.

“Bonjour.”

“Parle anglais?”

“Qui… erm yes, American.” Scully explained with a small smile.

“Ah. English. Hello.” The woman replied in said accent. 

“Hello.” Scully turned back towards the gravestones and heard the woman let out a small gasp.

“Gosh! You look so like…” She stopped talking abruptly.

“Like who?”

“Dana… Dana Scully.” Scully felt her stomach tighten.

“Wh.. what?” Scully spluttered, trying to gain control of her spiralling emotions. She had no idea who this woman was.

“Sorry.” The woman said, clearly seeing the alarm she had caused. “She was a nurse during the war, she served with my grandfather – Frank.” The woman indicated to Frank’s grave.

“You’re Frank’s granddaughter?” Scully asked in utter disbelief. He had granddaughter? He had a child? In all the time they had spent together he had never mentioned it.

“Yes. And you’re Dana’s granddaughter? Or great-granddaughter?”

“Yes.” Scully said after several long moments of silence. Her head was still spinning. Great-granddaughter – that would be about right age wise so she’d go with that.

“How incredible.” The woman breathed. She had no idea just how incredible Scully thought wryly but she didn’t say it. “I’m Sally, lovely to meet you.” Sally offered her hand and Scully took it, trying her best to stop the visible shake in her own hand as she did.

“I’m Dana.” Sally’s eyes widened and Scully realised her mistake. “I was named after her.” She explained quickly.

“And you look just like her too. Gosh!” Sally repeated. “It’s like she was cloned.” She said as she stared intensely. Scully squirmed a little under the concentrated attention.

“Sorry, how do you know what I – what Dana looked like I mean?”

“I have a photograph.”

Sally leant forward and rested her bouquet against Frank’s headstone before joining Scully on the ground next to it. She moved effortlessly and with an impressive fluidity for woman that must have been in her late fifties at least. She reached into the bag and produced a picture. Scully heard her own breath hitch. There was Frank and herself and Sophie all in their uniforms standing outside one of the tents at the hospital. She had no memory of it being taken but there it was in black and white in front of her. All three of them had big, beaming smiles and Frank had an arm around each of them. Scully’s vision blurred with unfallen tears. There they were: Frank and Sophie and her. She was there – she had been there. It hadn’t all been false.

“There’s Frank,” said Sally pointing to him. “And Dana, obviously. I’m not sure who this is.”

“It’s Sophie.” Said Scully without thinking. Sally looked up at Sophie’s gravestone beside them.

“Is it? Well I never.” She sounded about as shell-shocked as Scully felt. “Nice in a way – that they’ve stayed side by side.” Scully had to bite back a sob. She handed the photograph back without looking at Sally.

“I didn’t know Frank had any children. Dana never mentioned that.”

“Well I doubt she knew. He had one son, my father, born in early nineteen-nineteen.” The realisation dropped low in Scully’s stomach. “Frank came back home on leave about a week or so before he died. My grandmother didn’t find out until after he’d been killed. He never knew.” Scully swallowed thickly. He had left behind a son he never even knew about. Oh Frank. “My father used to come here every year. He’d never known him of course but he would come every year without fail. He died a couple of years ago and I seem to have taken up the habit without really realising it.” Sally explained quietly.

Frank was still loved. Even after all this time he was still loved. The thought warmed her.

“What happened to Dana after the war? My father tried to look for her a couple of times but he could never find anything.” Scully frowned in response. “I’m sorry, I should probably explain. My grandmother kept all the letters Frank ever wrote to her. My father used to read them, obsessively almost, from when he was a small child. It was the only part of his father he had you see. And Frank wrote a lot about the people at the hospital and a lot about Dana. I think my father was a bit in love with her… or at least he was love with the way Frank wrote about her: this brilliant, bold American nurse. Perhaps Frank was in love with her too, I get the impression he was quite the ladies man.” Scully felt herself blushing. She wanted to deny Frank’s attraction to her but there was no way she could, not without sounding insane. And he had been one hell of a ladies man. “Like I said my father checked census records and the like from after the war but he could never find anything.”

“They moved to America.” Scully said.

“Her and her American solider man?” Scully smiled – just how much had Frank included in his letters home? She nodded in confirmation and Sally smiled back at her. “Well that explains it then. I thought they probably had. Where did they live?”

“Washington, D.C.” The lies were slipping more easily from her tongue now. Though that wasn’t really a lie at all.

“And they were happy?”

“They were.” That wasn’t a lie either.

“Good.” Sally smiled again, the warmth radiating off of her. It was crazy but Scully could almost feel Frank radiating off of her too. She had that same easy way with people, the same natural brightness that glowed from within. “Did you know her then, Dana your great-grandmother? She told you about Frank?”

“Yes. She was still alive when I was a child. She used to tell me stories of the war and of Frank and Sophie and the others.”

“I wonder if they were the same bedtime stories I had.” The pair of them shared another smile just as Mulder came bounding over with a still very giggly and smiley Frances in his arms. As he reached them he placed a hand on Scully’s shoulder giving it a comforting squeeze. 

“Sally this is my husband… David…” She figured it was best not to call him Mulder just in case. It appeared Frank’s letters had been quite detailed. Mulder frowned slightly but he played along at once, smiling at Sally. “This is Sally, she’s Frank’s granddaughter.” Mulder’s eyes widened in surprise.

“Frank had children?” He asked in exactly the same disbelief she had had.

“A son born in nineteen-nineteen. He didn’t know.” Scully explained and Mulder hummed in understanding, squeezing her shoulder again.

“I’m sorry.” Scully wasn’t sure if he was talking to her or Sally but Sally clearly assumed the sentiment was meant for her.

“Oh don’t be!” She said jovially. “If he hadn’t I wouldn’t be here would I. Your daughter is beautiful. What’s her name?”

“Frances.” Scully answered and she couldn’t help but look at Frank’s name as she did. Sally’s smile grew wider still.

“How serendipitous!” She exclaimed.

“We should let you have your time.” Scully said after a few moments of quiet in which Frances’ happy babbling was the only sound that could be heard.

“Oh, you don’t have to leave on my account.” But Scully was already standing and reaching out to take the baby from Mulder’s arms. Frances continued to babble and coo and realising she had been exchanged from one parent to the other immediately grabbed Scully’s hair and started petting it with sticky fingers. Scully held her close and breathed her in.

“We should be getting off anyway. This one will be getting tired and trust me she won’t be as beautiful when the tantrums start.”

“I remember those days well.” Sally reached forward and touched her fingers to Frances’ cheek. “It was lovely to meet you Dana.”

“And you.” Scully said. Truthfully she wasn’t sure how she felt about the encounter but she knew it was time to leave. As they turned to walk away Sally suddenly called out her name and Scully turned to see her standing and offering her a card.

“It’s got my number and address on it. In case you feel like calling or writing… we can see if those bedtime stories really were the same. It would be lovely to hear from you.” Scully took the card with a shaky smile. She didn’t know if that was something that she could face but the offer was a kind one.

“Are you okay?” Mulder asked as they exited the graveyard and headed to where the car was parked. His hand was rubbing comforting circles into her lower back as they walked and she was glad for it. She slowed her pace to lean back into his touch.

“Yeah.”

“Are you going to contact her, do you think?”

“I don’t know… She had a photograph of Frank, Sophie and I… that was how she recognised me. I would like a copy of it… I never thought about descendants. I read that they’d died and I stopped looking for anyone else after that.”

“I think in Sophie’s case it’s a fair shout to assume there wasn’t anybody after that.” Mulder said gently.

“Not directly but she had a brother – Tommy. I don’t know what happened to him. He could have survived the war and had children and grandchildren.”

“Do you want to look for them?”

“I don’t know.” Scully repeated. She felt as if she didn’t know much of anything and her head was too heavy to make any kind of decision. There was a lot she had to process. “But it’s nice to have the option.” Mulder hummed his agreement. She turned to look at him as they walked along. Little puffs of condensation escaped his lips as the warmth of his breath met the cold air outside and his cheeks had a healthy pink glow. He was alive and well – sometimes she still had the overriding need to prove that to herself. “Thank you for coming with me, to France I mean.” She said at last. “I know you weren’t sure and it hasn’t been easy.” She wanted to acknowledge his trauma even if he didn’t. Mulder shook his head slightly.

“I wanted to come. Or at least I wanted to pay my respects and I feel I have done that now.” He said with typical Mulder conviction. “And if you wanted to come back I’d be open to it. We can come back whenever you want.”

“Hmm not sure how financially realistic that is for two currently unemployed people.”

The X-Files were officially closed – budget cuts. The Bureau was going on without them. They had gone back for a few weeks after they’d returned but it had never felt the same and then when Scully had found out she was pregnant, that the miracle that Mulder refused to give up on had finally come true, they took it as a sign it was time to leave their old lives behind. So far Scully had found she missed it a lot less than she thought she would. And Mulder appeared not to miss it at all which baffled her beyond belief. The man was a never-ending enigma. But the money Mulder had from his parent’s estate would not last forever and one of them would need to find a job sooner or later.

“Nah we’ll be okay.” Mulder said easily. “You can become a superwoman doctor…” She had been thinking more and more about retraining in medicine as of late. Her experiences in France had been nothing short of horrific but they had shown her that medicine is where her heart truly lay. If only her father had been around to witness the revelation. “And I’ll write a book all about time travel or something.” He teased. Scully rolled her eyes.

“You would as well.”

“I think this could be a bestseller!”

“Dadadadadadada…” Frances jabbered from Scully’s arms.

“That’s right baby, you tell Daddy he is ridiculous.”

“Aiming a bit high there Scully, she’s still struggling with yes and no, I think ridiculous might be pushing it.” Mulder said as they finally reached the car. The warm hotel room was getting closer and closer by the second and Scully’s frozen toes were more than ready for it. “Besides we all know her first proper word is going to be extra-terrestrial!”

As if to agree with him Frances suddenly exploded into another round of spontaneous giggling. Scully was preparing herself for a lifetime of being outnumbered – she couldn’t wait. Mulder took the laughing baby from her arms and dipped into the back of the car to strap her in.

“Mulder…” Scully said as he came back out again. He looked up at her and waited for her to speak. “We’re going to be okay.” She told him as if she had just decided it then and there. He gave her the widest of smiles.

“Yeah. We are.”

END


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